The world’s favourite piece of vapourware, 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem Forever, which has been in development for 9 years now, is in more trouble, according to Shacknews’ Chris Remo. Up to “ten major team members” have left the company recently, with a number of the departures having happened in the last few days. Chris also notes that “while the game’s team has reached a size of about 24-28 developers, recently it has been closer to 18, meaning these current departures may actually comprise a majority of the team” and that one of the departing employees is Keith Schuler, “a sixteen year veteran of Apogee and 3D Realms”.
For most, it’s a bit of a non-event. The project has been flailing about for years with very little in the way of results (aside from some wicked fan-art, as seen above) and, honestly, I think people are even getting over the jokes. Rats leaving the sinking ship? Yeah, whatever. It’ll be nice to see talented people like Schuler working on something interesting.
However, to the denizens of the 3D Realms message boards, this might actually be the last straw. One long-term member suggests it might be time for the company to give up, and sell the IP, and notes that “this has made the believers here look like complete fucking losers and validated all the naysayers who’ve said the game would never come out”. He also mentions that he “won’t be able to fucking sleep tonight” and that he is “on suicide watch”. It’s not clear whether he means for himself or the game.
In response, 3D Realms webmaster Joe Seigler has commented that “there’s honestly nothing to be concerned about. People leave. People come. There’s staff on the project you don’t know about”. Additionally, he says, “It’s internal business - all employee departures and comings have always been that way. This is nothing new. People have left before, IT IS THE NATURE OF THIS BUSINESS”.
Caps lock is games industry code for “IT’S ALL GOING FINE MAN I SWEAR”.
[via GAF]