Current State and Products
The latest game released by 3D Realms was Prey, on July 11, 2006 after being in development for eleven years. Prey was originally developed internally by 3D Realms, but after several years of delays, the company outsourced the development to Human Head Studios.
The other major project that 3D Realms was working on was Duke Nukem Forever, the sequel to Duke Nukem 3D. It was announced in 1997, and on May 6, 2009, its development was halted due to the development team being let go. The official release date of the game was "when it's done." During the years of the development of the game, some outside developers have developed and published Duke Nukem spinoffs.
On May 6, 2009, due to lack of funding, major staff cuts were initiated with the entire development team being laid off and other employees being given notice of their employment with the company being terminated. The official company website briefly went offline on that day, but went back up soon afterwards. While there was no official statement at that moment on the closure, apart from messages on the 3D Realms forum, a final message appeared in the front page of the site, showing a group photo of the 3D Realms team, with the caption "Goodbye. Thanks for being fans and for all your support."
It was reported on May 14, 2009 that Take-Two, holders of the publishing rights of Duke Nukem Forever, filed a breach of contract suit against Apogee Software Ltd (3D Realms) over failing to deliver the aforementioned title. Take-Two has asked for a restraining order and a preliminary injunction, to make 3D Realms keep the Duke Nukem Forever assets intact during proceedings.
On May 18, 2009 3D Realms key executives released the first full official "press release" with their side of the developments. "... 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing. ... Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6,... While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to licence and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise. ... Take-Two’s proposal was unacceptable to 3DR for many reasons, including no upfront money, no guarantee minimum payment, and no guarantee to complete the DNF game. ...we viewed Take-Two as trying to acquire the Duke Nukem franchise in a “fire sale.” ...we believe Take-Two’s lawsuit is without merit and merely a bully tactic to obtain ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. We will vigorously defend ourselves against this publisher."
On the September 3, 2010, Take-Two announced that development of Duke Nukem Forever had been shifted over to Gearbox Software, effectively ending 3D Realms' association with the game after 12 years of stunted development. 3D Realms remained a co-developer on Duke Nukem Forever, due to their involvement in developing most of the game. However, the rights and intellectual property have been sold to Gearbox, who are now the owners of the Duke Nukem franchise.
3D Realms still retains certain rights to the Duke Nukem franchise including but not limited to the rights to all Duke Nukem games prior to Duke Nukem Forever and the rights to the Duke Nukem Movie.
In an interview conducted with Scott Miller in April 2011 Miller specified that 3D Realms is currently involved with several projects citing, "Yes, we have several projects underway, all fairly small—not any big console games. Once DNF comes out we'll be definitely looking to invest into other projects, and maybe other up-n-coming teams who are blazing new trails on smaller platforms, like smart phones and XBLA. We have a long history of investing in young, unproven teams, going way back to Id Software, and including other notables like Parallax Software (we were the first studio to invest in Descent), and Remedy Entertainment (Death Rally and Max Payne). So, we like that model and will keep doing it in the future. We seem to have a good eye for unproven talent waiting for some experienced guidance and hard-to-find funding".
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