:bang:
...
:bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:
That is not what happened. Not even remotely. That's the "I Hate 3DR" version of the story, but it's not true.
-3DR never had more than 40-odd people, trying to make a AAA game. Consider that most AAA games these days have teams in the hundreds -- the number of actual hours spent on the game isn't that absurd compared to others this generation.
-They started over several times, because Broussard particularly was never satisfied and wanted to add new stuff every time stuff appeared in other games in the genre that he felt the game couldn't be without. Years of work were wasted with restarts.
-In 2007, 3DR increased the size of the team, to 40-something, hiring new people. The lead (below Miller and Broussard) of this version of the game was the first one to resist his attempts to add more stuff. The game finally started really rolling forward. We saw results soon -- in late 2007 they released a teaser video, the first anyone outside had seen of the game in over six years.
-However, in early 2009, and having spent just about all the money they had, that is $20 million, on the game's development over the years, 3DR needed $6 million more to finish the game. They went to Take Two, their publisher (Take Two had bought the publishing rights from Infogrammes, who had inherited them from GT Interactive when they purchased that company, years earlier; Take Two claims they paid $12 million for the rights, though 3DR got none of that money, only Infogrammes.), asking for the money. Take 2 offered $2.5 million, with maybe 2.5 million more upon completion -- we don't know the details. 3DR (ie Miller and Broussard) considered and maybe initially took the money, but then rejected the offer and returned it, if they had taken it. It wasn't enough.
-So, they fired the team in May 2009, when the money ran out. The game had been on schedule to finish in time for a probable release in 2010 -- I think that had Take Two given 3DR the $6 million, the game would be out by now. It was supposed to have been, and it had been on track since '07.
-After this, 3DR was basically reduced to just a couple of employees, most notably Miller and Broussard. However, some of the fired employees didn't want to let the game die after so much work, and with the end in sight. So, nine of them set up a new company,
Triptych Games, and continued work on the game. The existence of this company was not revealed until this Friday.
-In May '09 after the events above, Take Two sued 3DR for breach of contract, and 3DR countersued soon after.
-After the collapse of 3DR, many assets of the game in progress leaked, including multiple gameplay videos and animation tests, lots of screenshots, a text file outline of the game's plot, and more. I linked two of these videos already in this thread, but it's worth linking them again. One:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xctziz_...videogames Two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRnv_tFKStQ . If you watch these videos and then look at the footage of the game in action at PAX, you'll notice that it looks almost identical. It should, the PAX demo is 3DR work polished by Triptych and Gearbox, this we know from statements at the show.
-However, that small group wasn't enough to finish the game, they needed more developers. So, in late 2009, Gearbox started work on finishing the game. They are not making a new game, but, working with Triptych, 3DR (Miller and Broussard), and, in some unknown capacity, Piranha Games (we have no idea what they are doing on the project), finishing the game 3DR was so close to completing.
-In June or July of 2010, a settlement was reached to the lawsuits. We do not know the details of the settlement in any detail, and what we do know raises a lot of unanswered questions. We might learn more tomorrow at Gearbox's event, I'm hoping we do. We'll see though. Anyway, what we do know is that Take Two has publishing rights for the game forever. Gearbox now owns the Duke Nukem IP and the game. What we don't know is, why did Gearbox get the IP? I really want to know what forced Miller and Broussard to sell off their prime IP, and what if anything they got for it... I mean, 3DR is pretty much gone now. What are they going to do now? Will they get royalties from the game to maybe rebuild something if it does well, or are they just done? That would be pretty sad, with the game actually almost out... But we don't know, we'll see.
So yeah, that's the actual story of the game's progress in the past few years.
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