3DRealms is dead

[Stalagmite]

LITHUANIA

The asshole of the world where they just now invented soap!

Actually it was the Nazis who invented soap. Lithuanians provided the raw material.

Lithjewanians to be precise.

[Smiley]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6209901.ht ... bj=6209901

Seems they're not so dead afterall.

[St. Toxic]

To quote my Codex alter-ego:

This domain has just been registered for one of our customers!
Domain registration and webhosting at best prices.

It would be pretty nice seeing 3drealms getting out of this jam and actually releasing a game for once. How many dev houses do we have left out there that don't focus primarily on making huge wads of dough by churning out shitty titles in rapid fire? I'd say 3dr is one, and then I'm stumped on number two. So yeah, I'm on their side for this one.

[MR Snake]

What a load of shit.

They are totally out of the business but they forgot they owed 12 million which they have probably spent making that fancy youtube film of a could have been game.

Bunch of wankers.

[St. Toxic]

Apparently DNF was a self-funded project, and the lawsuit concerns publishing rights T2 bought from GoD (I think) when they went under. Meaning, they don't owe shit, apart from the release of DNF which is more or less an obligation they can't get away from in any case. :fancypants:

[MR Snake]

Any way you look it, they owe 12 million.

THey should really mess with them and release duke nukem forever in a mini 20 MB 2d game.. worth every penny I recon.

[Smiley]

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58651

They say they never saw any of that money.

[St. Toxic]

Any way you look it, they owe 12 million.

I thought I just said they didn't.

[PiP]

LITHUANIA

The asshole of the world where they just now invented soap!

snake are you striving for a new low?

[MR Snake]

LITHUANIA

The asshole of the world where they just now invented soap!

snake are you striving for a new low?

Always?

[MR Snake]

Any way you look it, they owe 12 million.

I thought I just said they didn't.

They owe a release or the 12 million back right? Since a release isnt likeky, its 12 million.

[St. Toxic]

Why don't I just quote the article that Smiley posted:

The statement then lays out 3DR's version of the tangled series of events that led to this month's dramatic developments. It claims that Take-Two has not given 3DR a single cent in signing bonuses or advances for DNF, but instead paid the $12 million mentioned in the suit to defunct publisher GT Interactive. (The publisher was absorbed by Atari parent Infogrames in 1999.) 3DR contends that, in 2008, it was paid a $2.5 million advance by Take-Two for "an unannounced game" (Not DNF) and the only money it ever received for DNF was a $400,000 advance from GT Interactive.

In short: T2 bought the publishing rights to DNF for 12m from GT Interactive, and now wants that money out of 3drealms, which is in no real way connected to that deal. If anything T2 should knock on Namco Bandai's door and complain, only it would do about as much good as this lawsuit against 3dr -- as in, no good.

Here's another interesting bit for you Snake:

To date, 3D Realms claims that it has sunk more than $20 million of its own money into Duke Nukem Forever, and that at of the end of 2008, it realized that it required outside help to continue. "Late last year, 3DR began negotiations with Take-Two to provide funding to complete the DNF game," read its statement. "In the meantime, 3DR was hitting mutually agreed milestones, despite not having a new agreement finalized. Take-Two was well aware that 3DR needed the funding to continue the DNF game development."

By 3D Realms' account, "Suddenly, after months of negotiations, Take-Two materially changed the parameters of the proposed funding agreement. 3DR informed Take-Two that it could not financially afford the changes Take-Two was suggesting and would be forced to release the team if an agreement was not reached."

"Take-Two made a last-minute proposal to acquire the Duke Nukem franchise and the 3DR development team. Take-Two's proposal was unacceptable to 3DR for many reasons, including no upfront money, no guaranteed minimum payment, and no guarantee to complete the DNF game. From 3DR's perspective, we viewed Take-Two as trying to acquire the Duke Nukem franchise in a 'fire sale.' Those negotiations fell through on May 4, a deal never materialized, and the DNF team was sadly released a few days later."

In short: T2 tried to do a hostile takeover of the DNF franchize and 3dr staff and that was a no-go. It's possible that this was their initial intention when they bought up the publishing rights for DNF in the first place; hinder the development until the opportunity to buy 3drealms out arises to get the complete package for a reasonably low price.

Notice that they already had a funding plan laid out, but changed it last minute to one that couldn't hold water. That's basically like taking the wheels off a car just as it starts rolling.

Summing up, T2 tried to buy Duke Nukem at a bargain price by crashing 3dr, but as Miller and Broussard would rather see it burn they're instead suing 3dr for a deal they made with Infogrames/GTI.

[MR Snake]

Alright im convinced.. See , thats all you had to say.

[POOPERSCOOPER]

A part of me feels like T2 is an evil corporation trying to take advantage of 3dr but then there is a part of me that feels like some stupid swell guy at T2 didn't thoroughly think through the new proposal.

It would have been in T2's best interest to have had the game get released instead of trying to risk the whole cancellation of the project. THATS JUST MY INNER THINK TANK THINKIN.

[St. Toxic]

You're right. Especially considering that 3dr was further into development of DNF than ever before. For a ghastly moment DNF could have been released and maybe even made some money for 3dr and T2. Now all there is to it, is a net loss of about 35 million in total, a pending lawsuit and interweb drama.

[VasikkA]

Guys, you're talking about some shitty gaming companies. It aint worth it, k?