Wired has a really good article from last year about why DNF was never finished: <a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/</a><p>Executive summary: The first game was <i>too</i> successful. Failure can be, and often is, a good thing.<p>"<i>Normally, game developers don’t have much cash. Like rock bands seeking a label to help pay for the cost of recording an album, game developers usually find a publisher to give them an advance in exchange for a big slice of the profits. But Broussard and Miller didn’t need to do this. 3D Realms was flush with cash. [...] Yet the truth is, Broussard’s financial freedom had cut him off from all discipline. He could delay making the tough calls, seemingly forever. One day, Broussard came in and said, ‘We could go another five years without shipping a game’ because 3D Realms still had so much money in the bank</i>"
I'd actually consider paying the pre-order fee to keep it in a perpetual state of pre-order. Goes from epic vaporware to a whole new vapor-based business model.
I don't even play video games any more, but if it's reviewed as any good at all, then I'd be tempted to buy a copy and waste a weekend playing it.<p>...hmm, maybe this is how all those luxury nostalgia business models work like $200 Barbies...
This is the first video game to have a "movie" appeal. Fans of other cross-media formats, such as comic books, often will watch the movie simply because they were a fan of the series - even if the consensus is that the crossover is absolutely and completely terrible, and also hear as much from their most trusted referrals (see: Daredevil).<p>Because of the aging of this game and the story behind it, this sequel has taken on a similar quality - showing that maybe the thing that creates the appeal isn't the media format presented, but rather, the duration of time between one notable appearance and the next.
It's just not the same. It's a game by the same name, but this isn't the DNF that we were waiting for: The possibly end-all be-all of games because it took so long to develop.
I love that Amazon lists the PC version as coming out for “Windows 7/XP.” So telling! I don’t think there’s really an analogy to make. Vista was a failure beyond comparison.