Success Killed the Videogame Star

It became a punchline for the decade: Where's Duke Nukem Forever? The "game" won so many vaporware awards that it became old the third time. But why did 3D Realms ever let it get to that point and how did the game that seemed to have such promise finally spell the demise for its prominent developer?

Wired Magazine took an in-depth look at 3D Realms and their franchise face to find out what went wrong. Co-founders George Broussard and Scott Miller refused to talk for the story because of a pending lawsuit against 3D Realms for failure to deliver the game. But Wired was able to piece together on-the-record and anonymous chats with former employees to get a pretty detailed look at the game and the inner workings of the company, and a virtual timeline leading up to the implosion.

From the article:

Ironically, the end was within reach, even if Broussard couldn’t see it. Raphael van Lierop, who was hired in 2007 as a creative director, was given several pieces of the game to play. It took him about five hours. Broussard was stunned; he’d thought those levels would take half that time to get through. “You could see the gears turning, with him thinking, ‘Oh wow — maybe we’ve got more game than we think,’” says van Lierop. Broussard had been staring at the game for so long, he’d lost perspective.

Van Lierop was excited: From what he’d seen of it, Duke Nukem Forever was so well developed — and so graphically superior to any other game in production — that if 3D Realms pushed hard for a year, they could release it and “blow everyone out of the water.” No, no, Broussard replied. It was two years out. Van Lierop was stunned. “I thought, ‘Wow, how many times have you been here, near the finish line, and you thought you were way out?’”

The story is incredibly well researched and offers a better picture of what happened. The ending offers some speculation on the future of the franchise:

Many observers think Take-Two is attempting to bleed 3D Realms dry until it has no more cash, then convince a judge to force Broussard and Miller to hand over intellectual-property rights to the Duke Nukem franchise to repay the $2.5 million advance. “It’s an IP grab,” says one Dallas-area developer. If Take-Two actually secured the rights to Duke Nukem, it might likely throw out the by-then-aging Duke Nukem Forever and simply hire new developers to produce new Duke games. But even without the suit, there is only a short window for Duke Nukem Forever to come out in its current form before it will have to be revised yet again, to keep pace with changing technology.

With Take-Two facing many of its own financial woes, the conclusion may not be far-fetched.

(Image courtesy Wired Magazine and Olly Moss)