According to the 10-Q, March saw Take-Two and 3D Realms renegotiate the original contract for Duke Nukem Forever, which began back in 1997. Under the original deal, 3D Realms was to receive some $6 million from Take-Two to develop the title. Now, the Texas-based developer will receive $4.25 million for the oft-delayed game, when it is completed.
When will that be? Well, 3D Realms has an incentive to get Duke Nukem Forever done by the end of the year. The 10-Q also reveals that Take-Two has offered the studio $500,000 in the form of a promissory note if the game sees “commercial release” by December 31, 2006. The deal applies only to the PC version of the game, although it was announced for the Xbox and the PlayStation 2 in 2001 and is rumored to be in development for the Xbox 360.
So there you have it. Could 3D Realms slogun “it’s done, when it’s done” be “in 2006?”
Duke Nukem Forever designer George Broussard said in February 2006: “It’s definitely going well now. Things are together; we’re in full production. We’re basically just pulling all the pieces together and making the game out of it. There’s a lot that’s finished. All the guns are finished. Most of the creatures are finished.
And as I said, we’re just basically pulling it all together and trying to make it fun. We’ve kind of got all these disassociated elements that make up a game, and you put them together and things happen. And then you just tweak it and polish it until it’s fun, and that’s kind of the phase we’re in now, just trying to make something that is really fun to play and interesting.”
In March 2006 Scott Miller, CEO of 3D Realms, even announced that the company intends on developing a sequel to Duke Nukem Forever! But in April 2006 that was followed up by designer George Broussard in an interview with Computer Game Magazine with the following statement: “The problem is that when we show it, people are going to be like, ‘Yeah, whatever’. Honestly, at this point we just want to finish it.”
If you want to read about all the game’s engine changes and see it’s timeline, go to the Duke Nukem Forever Wikipedia page for all the background information.