3D Realms’ president George Broussard has responded to the Duke Nukem Forever release in 2006 murmurings, speaking on the developer’s official forum:
“As for the 500k completion bonus, I don’t even know were that came from,” Broussard claimed. “I do know that we never cared or asked for it, and I think it was just tossed in as part of some other agreement. We’re certainly not motivated by that amount of money, after all this time, and getting the game right is what matters. I would never ship a game early (even a couple of months), for 500k.”
So, it looks like the developer’s isn’t going to get the game out the door by the end of 2006. But, how’s our old friend Duke coming along behind closed doors? Well, “Our deal is simple. We’re making the game. It’ll be done when it’s done. We’ve funded 99.999% of the game (aside from a very, very small advance from GT Interactive, years ago, before Take 2 bought the game from them.)”
Broussard continued, “It’s our risk, our necks and our gamble. Under the deal we should be earning royalties from about unit 30,000 or so (that’s a real small number).”
So it looks like we’ll be seeing Duke Nukem Forever in 2007. Or will we? 🙁