Take-Two: "Just finish DNF already, darnit! Now!"

[A Black Falcon]

Take Two recorded a $50.2 million dollar lose for last quarter as shares slumped 17.53 percent. The filing also mentions some Duke Nukem Forever release date rumors and incentives:

According to the 10-Q, March saw Take-Two and 3D Realms renegotiate the original contract for Duke Nukem Forever, which began back in 1997. 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.

When will that be? Well, 3D Realms now has a fairly large incentive to get Duke Nukem Forever done by the end of the year. The 10-Q also reveals that 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. The deal applies only to the PC version of the game, although it was announced for the Xbox and the PlayStation 2 in 2001 and is rumored to be in development for the Xbox 360.

http://ve3dboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=24093452
(Note: the article is wrong -- it's actually been reduced to only 4.2 million, not $4,200. Still, that's a third of what they were going to get...)


We'll see, but I'm doubtful it'll make that date... :)

Actually, I hope it doesn't. You see, they started early development in February 1997... it'd be a shame to release it so close to its 10th anniversary of non-completion! :D

Seriously, I know that 10 years is a long time, but if they rush the last part to try to finish it by the end of the year, it would be sad... 3DRealms has made or helped make a lot of great games, and this one has been their main project for a really long time now. They need to prove that it was worth the effort and that this is indeed the great FPS that it could be and that lives up to the legacy of Duke 3D... (and Duke 1 and 2, but as side-scrollers they play very differently, making the comparison less relevant)

[Great Rumbler]

Not gonna happen.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, that $500,000 is probably as good as gone.

[Dark Jaguar]

Are they even working on it? :D Oh right! They were attempting to use quantum tunneling to get the game working on the Atari 2600 right? :D (For those in the know, yes I'm aware quantum tunneling couldn't possibly do anything in this situation, but the word "quantum" makes people believe you.)

[A Black Falcon]

Are they even working on it? Oh right! They were attempting to use quantum tunneling to get the game working on the Atari 2600 right? (For those in the know, yes I'm aware quantum tunneling couldn't possibly do anything in this situation, but the word "quantum" makes people believe you.)

Eerie... did you know that Joe Siegler, the Apogee/3DRealms webmaster, is a huge Atari 2600 fan? He made this (three years ago)...

http://www.3drealms.com/duke4/dnf2600.html

Yes, it's real. :D (click the link!)

Siegler is great, he likes classic gaming and has been a big part of why some of Apogee's old games that had been discontinued have been released as freeware (Bio Menace, Stargunner, Major Stryker, Xenophage, Caves of Thor, and several really old titles). :)

[Dark Jaguar]

That's what I was talking about.

How odd that my memory OF the event would result in a joke about said moment! *twilight zone music*

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, I thought I probably mentioned it a few years ago when it was new...

I think it took the whole 2600 cartridge memory to do that one little picture of Duke, but yeah, it's there... :)

[Dark Jaguar]

If that game is some sort of "five hour wonder", I'll be upset...

It needs to be a BAJILLION levels long, and the graphics should scale upwards to infinity so it looks good relative to the ENTIRE future! Also, they should stick in the entire Duke Nukem collection, and remake them all in 3D too, and there should be a hidden character, Commander Keen, and he should totally have all his weapons including his legendary pogo stick!

Ten YEARS of development SHOULD make such demands reasonable!

Truth time. I really didn't care much for "Duke Nukem 3D". I enjoyed the 2D games, but preferred Commander Keen and the AVALANCHE of other Apogee platformers. But, BUT, I might actually GET this if only because of the novelty.

[A Black Falcon]

Duke 3D is fun, but I only got a few levels into it... then my interest waned, just like it had for Doom and Wolfenstein 3D... good game though. As for Duke 1 and 2, yeah they're good, but also I completely agree that Commander Keen is a lot better. Those games were awesome... :)

As for length, who knows... Half-Life 2 took six years to make and how long was that one?

[Great Rumbler]

Half-Life 2 took six years to make and how long was that one?

About 12-15 hours, but it was also one of the greatest games ever.

[A Black Falcon]

My point. :)

... okay, DNF might not be Half-Life 2 level. But it certainly should be a good, fun game... as for length though, FPSes these days usually seem to end up at 10-15 hours. Not long by most genres' standpoints, but it's what most of them seem to end up at... Duke 3D was longer, but that was an older title, so who knows... and as for 'it's nine years into development', well... Half-Life 2 took six years. With a team two or three times larger than Apogee/3DR has, I believe. And it's not like they're still working on that same version, they've basically had to restart the thing several times... I'd say that as much as anything it shows how ridiculous development cycles are getting -- Elder Scrolls IV took like five years too (four?), for instance... the big titles keep taking longer and longer. That's why Valve has decided to make "Half-Life 3" be three episodic installments, instead of another five-year project -- so "Half-Life 2: Episode I" (which Valve has said could kind of be considered Half-Life 3, Episode I) is out now, not in three or four years. It's an interesting business model... yeah, it does seem like it'd be frusterating (getting like 5 hours into a game and then having it say "wait six months for the next part"...), but... is that worse than waiting three or four years for the whole thing at once? :) (Note that Sin Episodes and Bone are also working on this model, and the new Sam & Max game will be too)