A number of staff have been laid off at 3D Realms and Slipgate Ironworks - the developers behind Ghostrunner, Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem and more - as the game industry devastation wrought by Embracer’s restructuring efforts continues.
]]>When Duke Nukem 3D burst onto the FPS scene in the Nineties, young CJ was a bit confused. This Duke wasn't the purple-shirted acrobat I'd known from Apogee Software's pair of platformers earlier that decade. He was brash, crude, and and didn't side-scroll anymore. It wasn't for me, so I moved on to other games. I still occasionally loaded up those earlier platformers though, wistfully remembering a time when Duke presumably used actual toilets when he needed to answer a call of nature.
]]>Embracer Group, named for the wonderful hugs they give, have announced the acquisition of several development studios under their various subsidiaries. They now own 3D Realms, who, despite operating largely as a publisher nowadays, will forever be linked to Duke Nukem. This means that Embracer now owns both 3D Realms and Duke Nukem’s owners, Gearbox, who they acquired earlier this year. Can you see where this is heading?
]]>Duke Nukem 3D [official site] turned twenty this year, which means it can get away with drinking hard liquor and smoking cigars in a strip club legally in some parts of the world, but might not think that’s as cool as it once seemed. Mr Nukem is actually twenty-five years old, however, having appeared in two platform games before his FPS adventures. Years of development hell later, he also appeared in Duke Nukem Forever, a game remembered more for its delays than its eventual release.
Today, we've been thinking and chatting about all things Duke, from wonderful level design to wonky nipples and weird space tigers.
]]>Old Man Duke Nukem has gotten the band back together to show us disrespectful whippersnappers what for in Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary Edition World Tour [official site]. Out today (in a few hours), it's a re-release of 3D Realms' 1996 first-person shooter with an extra episode made by the old gang. Original level designers Allen Blum III and Richard 'Levelord' Gray have made new levels, composer Lee Jackson has musicated them, and ol' Jon St. John is back in the recording booth saying movie quotes.
]]>Duke Nukem very nearly said, "It's time to announce a video game and prematurely leak the announcement of the aforementioned video game, and I'm all out of leaks." Very nearly. As rumoured, Gearbox Software last night announced Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour [official site]. It's an expanded and revamped re-release of 3D Realms' 1996 proto-Gone Home FPS, including a new episode and an (optional) 3D graphical makeover. What's neat is that Gearbox have reunited some of the old gang, including level designers, a musicman, and of course the voice of Duke.
]]>They're releasing another Duke Nukem, then. Gearbox are muttering to themselves and engaging in dreadful brandter so yup, it's on. Predictions: the return of jokes already ten years old when Duke Nukem 3D borrowed them twenty years ago; an awkward attempt to reframe Duke's earnest trashiness as 'ironic'; a game hoping to coast on former glories. If rumours and leaks are to be believed, the new game is Duke Nukem 3D: World Tour, a 'remastered' version of the 1996 FPS with new content and ugly lighting.
]]>A lot has changed in video games across my six years as a professional words person, but Duke Nukem has always been a shambles. In uncertain times, I knew I could always glance his way and groan "Oh no what's happened now?" I feel a little lost now the legal troubles between old owner 3D Realms and the new Dukelords at Gearbox Software have wrapped up.
Gearbox, 3D Realms, and 3DR owner Interceptor Entertainment have issued a joint statement declaring they've voluntarily ended all the litigation, and that Gearbox are "the full and rightful owner[s] of the Duke Nukem franchise."
]]>Remember that legal battle between Rise of the Triad developer Interceptor (who recently ate 3D Realms) and Borderlands border/game license patrol Gearbox over who's allowed to make Duke Nukem games? Yeah, well it's still happening, and apparently it's not going as smoothly as Interceptor anticipated when I interviewed them. From Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction's maybe-ashes has arisen Bombshell, Interceptor's own top-down blast-'em-up starring a hard-fighting, harder-drinking main character. This one, however, is an impractically dressed lady with a robot arm... who just so happens to have recently robbed Duke Nukem's supply chest/motorcycle garage/lion throne room. Trailer and first details below.
]]>Oh gaming industry, even during the early year release doldrums, you never pull punches on good old fashioned drama. In the red corner, we have Rise of the Triad developer Interceptor, whose burgeoning brand roster now includes the smoldering remains of original Duke Nukem creator 3D Realms, and in the blue corner we have Borderlands developer and current Duke owner Gearbox. Gearbox, of course, is suing Interceptor because of Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, a gum-assing, kick-chewing ARPG it doesn't believe Interceptor has the rights to develop. But, in the wake of its 3D Realms purchase, Interceptor has told RPS that it thinks it's completely in the right.
]]>I didn't see this coming. Interceptor, the Danish company that recently announced a Duke Nukem ARPG and released the Rise of the Triad remake last year, have bought Apogee Software Ltd (aka the legal name of 3D Realms). This surprises me because I didn't think I'd be writing any stories about 3D Realms in 2014, except perhaps when they licensed Shadow Warrior out for a sequel to the splendid remake. But the senescent studio has already been making headlines in this, the 27th year of its existence. They're not exactly the kind of headlines that would ordinarily lead to a buy-out though.
]]>If the NeoGAF community's swift data extraction is to be believed, Interceptor, the team that rebooted Rise of the Triad, are due to announce a new Duke Nukem game. They have history with the man who stole a thousand catchphrases, having initially attracted Apogee's attention while working on a remake of Duke Nukem 3D. Mass Destruction does not sound a continuation of that remake. Instead, if the briefly operative website is to be believed, it's "a top-down action role-playing game...including experience points and tech trees". Earlier comments by Interceptor's CEO Frederik Schreiber suggest a possible return to the square-jawed intergalactic heroics of the original side-scrolling Duke, in place of the failure of a parody of a satire of a spoof that haunted Forever. The website is currently undergoing maintenance but reportedly contained a 24 hour countdown timer. You can follow NeoGAF's detective work here, or cast your eyes down the page for quoted details.
]]>Just a brief note on something we really should have mentioned a couple of days back - Shacknews have, they claim, actually seen Duke Nukem Forever in action. Like, with their eyes and stuff. The very scant report they gave had some calling shenanigans, but 3D Realms' George Broussard later popped his head into the thick of it to offer some apparent corroboration.
]]>
