Despite Everything, Duke Nukem Forever Was Profitable

@ADarkMatter said:

EDIT: Was Shadows of the Damned "profitable"? I mean Duke was just a bad joke and should have stayed like that, let the guy die already, and there are a bunch of better games out there that just won't sell as much as Duke Nukem Forever did; that's bad for the industry IMO.

Unfortunately, it's hard to say for a lot of reasons, primary being that we don't know the budget of the game. That said, Grasshopper historically makes their games for ridiculously fucking cheap (No More Heroes was a monstrous success for them at 125k in its first month in North America), so hopefully!

Hail to the King, Baby!

Profitable for Take Two maybe. Taking the development as a whole? No chance. That's like saying 'APB was profitable' because the company that picked it up for next to nothing ended up making their money back. If you ignore the fact that they already burned up millions of dollars and sunk studios, then sure, these games are profitable.

I think the tidbit about L.A. Noire is more interesting. How can you sell 4 million copies of a game and still run a loss?

So bad just everyone had to buy it. Except for a few, me included.

@SlashseveN303 said:

I can't imagine Duke Nukem being profitable if you take into account all it's years of development. Good for Gearbox though, getting that money so they can keep making better games, like Borderlands.

Of course, they could have just used the time they spent on DNF to concentrate on one of those better and more profitable games instead.

Gearbox aren't good enough to be considered in the very top tier of developers (Blizz, Valve, Rockstar etc.), but I think they have the potential to be in the next class down if they wanna be. I don't think following up their breakout hit (Borderlands) with a shitty, Frankenstein's monster of a game like DNF was smart at all, even if they didn't lose money on it.

This is why we can't have nice things.

THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS.

Its to bad the shitty console ports colored so many people on this game, the PC version is far better than it's console counterparts, not to say the game is great or even good it has serious problems but I had a good time playing it, a few choice scenes showed the potential underneath and don't even get me started on the "Rape" scene which everyone freaked out over and it turned out to be nothing we havent seen in alien movies FOR YEARs!

Keep in mind everything prior to 2006 or so was written off as a loss and closed. I bet if you included those numbers this is in the negative.

I'm glad DNF is turning a profit, here's hoping it's successful enough for Gearbox to invest time developing an ACTUAL Duke Nukem reboot. I'd be interested in seeing what a modern Duke is.

Play it on a PC. It's way more enjoyable, particularly if you're a fan of Duke 3D. All the smarmy, hate filled reviews were pathetic.

Always bet on Duke??

geez if Duke can have his horrid release, why can't I have one for mechwarrior?  I don't care how "turd"y it is.  Serve it up and I'll eat it.

Money spent "ironically" is still money.

A little part of me died inside when I thought of the games who deserved sales far more than this %!#/(&#!)!#(!#?#" !%(#%&"#)(! !&#%!(#$.

So what made them end with a loss?

Also, they shipped 4 million copies of L.A. Noire. Shipping four million and retailers selling four million are two different things.

The joke stopped being funny as soon as the game came out and then Duke got to laugh at us. Everyone is confused. No one is safe!

@weeman105: It's true that shipping 4 million and selling 4 million are different things. But even so shipping that many units to willing retailers is pretty darn impressive!

Hey, I'd buy that for a dollar.

Good?

Oh god........

@Crunchman said:

BUT AT WHAT COST?

i am rather supprised with this i meen it was in development for about 12 years thats gotta be costly and the reviews were pritty negative :\

That can't be good for Take-Two if they weren't profitable this quarter despite 4 million sales of LA Noire. At what point do they tell Rockstar to push the finish on the next GTA?

We live in a world where Adam Sandler movies make bank. This can't be a surprise.

There is no God.

Cool, a squeal would be cool. Most cool, uber cool if you will.

If done right Duke Nukem could be hilarious and fun to play, just a shame DNF wasn't.

It was an event...they won't be fooled again

I'm very proud to say I did not buy it. Nope, I spent my money on Brink instead... yeah, totally didn't get shafted there.

@ryanwho said:

I have a hard time believing they account for the salary of every person who worked on this over the past 12+ years when measuring their gains.

They don't, of course. Randy bought the game in almost finished form for a song.

Let's be clear, it wasn't really worth making, but after 3D Realms collapsed, it was worth finishing for Gearbox and Take Two. That's what this story is saying. If those two companies were saddled with the costs from before they picked it up, it would have been disastrous.

if transformers can make millions, why cant duke

@Crunchman said:

BUT AT WHAT COST?

Best comment in this thread.

Considering the number of people who go to Michael Bay movies, listen to Ke$ha and watch Jersey Shore, I guess this isn't entirely surprising. Always bet on the bad taste of the general public.

Hail to the bling, baby!

so, if the next game gets made within a 2-4 year dev cycle, and is totally Self-referential like Jeff was suggesting, i'd be totally up for that.

While I didn't buy or play DNF, i'm excited by the prospect of a new Duke game being made, and if Gearbox is fully developing it, i'm kind of hopeful for it.

I remember it being pretty high on the NPD list, but that game has been in development since I've been in Kindergarden (and I'm currently entering my second year of college). I'm really surprised they turned a profit.

You're right, now that I think about it, Gearbox is extremely busy for next year. No doubt Aliens: Colonial Marines will get delayed until 2013 which means we won't see another Duke game until at least 2015! Hooray for us!

How will the next game in the series sell when it doesnt have the gimmicky "we spent 14 years to make this game"? Probaby really poorly.

I guess that that I am happy that Gearbox was able to get that game out, and as super interested that I am in the game, not $60 dollara interested! If they had released it for $19.99 I would have been all over it day one. Heck, even for $29.99, I would have probably picked it up right when it came out! Still can't wait to grab it on sale or even used eventually!

People really wanted a Duke Nukem Game, just too bad this one took so long and ended up being meh in the end.