Duke Nukem Forever is probably the most contentious game never released, enduring over a dozen years of development before the majority of the team working on it was fired in May 2009. With litigation between developer 3D Realms and Take-Two Interactive ongoing, Wired decided to take a look back at the rise and fall of the Duke Nukem franchise.
They noted that Duke Nukem 3D was a breakout hit among gamers, injecting flair and personality into the fledgeling FPS genre and selling over 3.5 million copies worldwide. Producer George Broussard wanted the sequel to be even bigger and badder, a desire that ultimately led the team to scrap most of its work on an early Quake II engine build to switch to the Unreal Engine... and a cycle of chasing the latest-and-greatest technology began.
“George’s genius was realizing where games were going and taking it to the next level,” says former 3D Realms worker Paul Schuytema. “That was his sword and his Achilles’ heel. He’d rather throw himself on his sword and kill himself than have the game be bad.”
“I remember being very impressed by the features. It was incredibly cool technology,” added an anonymous 3D Realms developer hired in 2000. “But it wasn’t a game. [It was like a series of tech demos] in a very chaotic state.”
Some of those interviewed theorize that Broussard was paralyzed by his own success with Duke Nukem 3D. “When Duke came out, they were kings of the world for a minute,” says Wilson, veteran from id Software, Ion Storm and Gamecock Media. “And how often does that happen? How often does someone have the best thing in their field, absolutely? They basically got frozen in that moment.”
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December 23, 2009
DNF=Does not finish.