Duke Nukem Forever Due This Year?

nz17 writes "Under the original deal, 3D Realms was to receive some $6 million from Take-Two to develop the title. Now the Texas-based developer will receive only $4,250 for the oft-delayed game when it is completed. Just the same, 3D Realms has a fairly large incentive to get Duke Nukem Forever done by the end of the year; Take-Two has offered the studio $500,000 in the form of a promissory note if the game sees commercial release by December 31, 2006."

Comments

Re:$4250 ?

[Dance_Dance_Karnov]

~11.6 years...sounds about right.

More than $4,250

[NsinR8R]

It's more than just $4,250: on the 10-Q, all dollar figures (with the exception of per-share amounts) are listed in thousands. Quoting the financial statement notes, the "In March 2005, the Company renegotiated a $6,000 contingent obligation due upon delivery of the final PC version of Duke Nukem Forever through the payment of $4,250 and issuance of a promissory note in the principal amount of $500." That would actually, then, be four-and-a-quarter million dollars rather than a paltry 4K.

Re:Good Idea?

[raehl]

compared to less than $5000 is a pretty decent incentive

You're forgetting one of the main slashdot rules - never ascribe to malace what can be explained by bad editing.

(The new amount isn't $4,250, it's 4.25 million.)

Re:Good Idea?

[RichardX]

There are more text adventures out there than you could probably play in a lifetime!
The really nice thing is, the vast majority of them are developed on either of two system - TADS, the Text Adventure Development System or Inform, Infocom's system. Both are free for anyone to develop their own games with, and there are interpreters for these systems (especially Inform) on just about any platform you care to use.

A good central 'hub' to start from is the IF archive with some beginners guides on how to get started, and a massive collection of games to download and play. and googling for 'interactive fiction' will turn up lots more sites.
Have fun :)

Re:$4,250.00 ?

[jchawk]

I hate to be the buzz kill but all stock filings are posted in a short hand notation where you always divide all dollar amounts by 1,000. So $10,000,000 becomes - $10,000. So your post should read something like this -

In November 2005, the Company acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of Firaxis Games, Inc. ("Firaxis"), a developer of PC and strategy titles, including the Civilization franchise. The purchase price of approximately $15,442,000 consisted of $12,500,000 of unregistered common stock and $4,085,000 of development advances previously paid to Firaxis reduced by net cash acquired of $1,143,000.

In June 2005, the Company acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of Gaia Capital Group and its wholly-owned subsidiaries ("Gaia"), the developers of certain of the Company's titles for console and handheld platforms. The purchase price consisted of $5,748,000 in cash, $4,055,000 of development advances previously paid to Gaia and deferred consideration of $1,597,000.

In January 2005, the Company acquired from SEGA all of the outstanding capital stock of Visual Concepts Entertainment and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Kush Games, the developers of certain of the Company's sports titles, and certain intellectual property rights associated with these products. The purchase price consisted of $27,794,000 in cash, $1,866,000 of prepaid royalties previously advanced to SEGA and contingent consideration of $2,593,000 based on the release of certain titles.

Re:Good Idea?

[Bambi Dee]

Hmm. I may be missing something, but I think you're confusing Choose Your Own Adventure type multiple choice games with the more simulationist, finer-grained parser-based text adventures; the grand-parent post quoted the very first of the latter - the venerable (if primitive) Adventure/Colossal Cave from 1975 (or one of its various, er, mods.)

Popular companies were Infocom, Magnetic Scrolls and Level 9, among others; these days, the form is kept alive by enthusiasts and frequently taken into directions more experimental and/or literary than throw the axe at the dwarf then pick up the gold.

Baf's Guide to the IF-Archive is a good place to start searching; as is the IF Review Conspiracy. Poke around and you'll notice most good games require either a "Z-Code" or "TADS" interpreter (VM); refer to the Inform homepage for a list of UNIX Z-Code interpreters or just go with Zoom right away (link has pretty picture). As for TADS games, here're the Linux TADS 2/3 Playkit and, alternatively, a QT-based TADS 2/3 interpreter.

TADS and Inform, incidentally, are the two most widely used Interactive Fiction programming languages. And although that's not their intended purpose, both have also been used for multiple choice games on occasion.

If you're interested, Brass Lantern has a collection of articles for beginners. If you're not, oh well ;)

Re:Good Idea?

[jdgeorge]

There appears to be some confusion, because the linked article doesn't quote the correct number.
There's a similar, but more accurate, version of the story here. This article describes the potential dollars thus:

The new terms had Take-Two pay 3D Realms $4.25 million up front along with the aforementioned $500,000 promissory note