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3DR Issues Press Release, Clears Confusion
3D Realms felt the need to speak up against their publisher and divulge previously unknown details about their past, present and maybe even future.
Among these is information about outside funding for DNF: the $2,5 mln 3DR received from Take Two for DNF and another, unannounced project back in July 2008 and $400 000 from GT Interactive, their first publisher. 3D Realms itself has put into the game over $20 mln of its own money.
Also described is a recent funding deal between 3DR and T2 that fell through because the latter party insisted on changes which were unacceptable to 3DR, even after 3D Realms informed Take Two that DNF won't be done if Take Two does not fund the last stretch of developement. As a last measure Take Two proposed to buy the Duke IP for an undisclosed sum of money and on terms which were unacceptable (according to 3DR) and so 3D Realms has been forced to let go the DNF developement team.
While Take Two holds the rights to publish DNF, 3D Realms "retains certain rights to sell the game directly to the public" and can and will license the Duke IP to other companies to create various Duke games.
The press release ends with talk about the recent lawsuit and how 3DR believes that it is unfounded and "merely a bully tactic to obtain ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise".
Click through to see the text in full.
Thanks Shacknews for the original report.
[ Read the rest... ]
Duke Nukem Light Show
Fans in Poland have given Duke a guest appearance on a pixelized dorm building project. Basically, they set up a light show to have the room windows as pixels, and at 2:48, Duke steals the show.
Here is their official site. Thanks to Clint "phreakindee" Basinger for submitting the news!
Site Updates
There's several updates to Duke4.net that we'd like to bring to your attention:
- We're now hosting EDKR's new arrangement in our Grabbag MP3s section. Check it out--it's short and sweet.
- Our forums are now hosted on a faster, more reliable server on the URL forums.duke4.net. Update your bookmarks!
- Our forums are now home to the official Duke Nukem 3D mod community, directed by TerminX.
Our traffic levels continue to be astounding regardless of 3D Realms' unfortunate demise. That means that we'll be growing in size, hosting more content, and also becoming home to other Duke Nukem games outside of the Forever franchise. In other words, we'll be focusing on not just DNF news, but news on anything Duke Nukem related.
If you've got a large Duke site that specializes in mods or maps, come to us for hosting.
Take-Two Sues 3D Realms
...because George kept promising to deliver the game and failed to do so.
(For the record, the legal name of 3D Realms is Apogee Software Ltd., the party being sued. It is a separate entity from Apogee Software LLC, developers of the still alive Duke Nukem Trilogy.)
According to the complaint, "Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever."
EPIC FAIL.
Update: Court documents.
Update #2: Scott Miller is on the case! The first public words from someone high up in 3D Realms since their demise:
No. We didn't get a penny of that money. This, along with so much else, is 100% spin, being eaten up by those who have no clue whatsoever. But, we cannot talk yet. We will, soon...
Update #3: Scott says Take-Two never offered 30 million dollars for the Duke IP:
We would have taken this offer without hesitation. Not. Even. Close. [We'd have] sold the IP in a heart beat and created a new IP with that 30 million.
Old Duke Nukem Forever Characters
Joe Wampole says:
The first is a super mutated pig cop that's meant to be 15-20 ft tall. He was done entirely in zbrush, except the hair (3dMax hair). [The second is] an older version of the Battlelord. Texturing and body primarily in zbrush. Armor done w/ Max. [The third is] an older version of the Enforcer. Head and some armor using zbrush.
Thanks for sharing that with us, Joe. And thanks to Sayantan for the heads up.
Polymer: The Community's DNF
With all this sad news going on about 3D Realms and DNF, we'd like lighten you up a bit by reminding you again of the Polymer renderer for EDuke32. The goal of the project is to upgrade the graphics in Duke Nukem 3D to a point where it could look as good as Doom 3, and maybe in a few years, even as good as the leaked DNF screenshots from the latest build of Duke Nukem Forever.
Make sure to check out our new Duke Nukem 3D modifications forum and also the official Polymer thread for more information and screenshots.
What George Is Up To
While the big guy has been out of the public's eye, he's been writing recommendations for all the employees he had to lay off. You'll need a LinkedIn account to check 'em out. Here's a snippet:
Hopefully those of you that are in denial will realize by now that there is no viral marketing conspiracy going on.
Here´s What Happened
A few news items down, we had some quotes by Cubeblue thanks to Yossa. Here's some more from the same source (click below):
[ Read the rest... ]
More DNF Portfolio Art
This is a developing news item. Keep checking back for updates.
Check sources below for more shots:
http://madmanmarkskelton.blogspot.com/
http://www.randyforsyth.blogspot.com/
Also, for anyone who has a problem with these shots, here's Mark Skelton's response:
I was at 3drealm almost exactly 2 years. a lot of the staff were under 3 years. I took the job because if any company on the planet needed help finishing a game, 3d realms did, and we ALMOST pulled it off. In 2 years of being there, we were able to take this convoluted mess and make it into a badass game. I wish the world would have seen it to realize how cool and fun it was. The team we had was fantastic. But, no one will ever know..
DNF Demo Reel
UPDATE: at the bottom of this news post you'll find some information about the video and DNF in general.
It appears a demo reel from Duke Nukem Forever has leaked recently from Bryan Brewer's site (www.liquidmesh3d.com). It contains gameplay footage from numerous levels as well as some animations of the enemies. There are also new one liners from Jon St. John, the Duke himself.
Jesus Christ it's awesome guys... If this game is not going to be released ever I'm going to be so depressed. Grab it from one of these places:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YLHALVVM (Thanks for the mirror Ramen4ever)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FACI6IPJ (The Dukenator)
http://rapidshare.com/files/231211591/demo_reel_web.mov.html (zchri9)
http://rapidshare.com/files/231229773/demo_reel_web.mov (Pazurek)
http://www.exp.de/download.php?id=16844 (Michael)
Streams:
Gametrailers.com
Viddler.com
VoodooExtreme
Thanks go to zchri9 for bringing it to our attention.
UPDATE:
Cubeblue (pretty much confirmed as a reliable source) from shacknews comments has posted some information regarding the above footage. Here goes:
The guy obviously stripped away details in some of the video to highlight the motion and animations.
I've played a good bit of the game, my bro worked there. That scene with the big alien in the football field? That's the first level, it's Duke playing an arcade version of Duke 3D inside his huge Duke mansion. This was last summer and I saw four different levels and environments that were fully playable (some just needed some polish).
They basically started making the game again from scratch (as they've done a few times) about a year and a half ago.
They had a hard cut-off date for development (11/2009) and a ship date (4/2010). They were stupid close to actually finishing this thing.
Was it going to be worth 12 years wait? Of course not. But it looked like a solid offering from a studio that had spent 2.5 years working on a title.
And more about the stadium bit:
