If 3D Realms bears the illustrious surname of the creators of Duke Nukem, the current version is a small Danish structure mainly dedicated to publishing nervous FPS like Ion Fury and CULTIC. Slipgate Ironworks is currently working on the FPS in early access Graven; we have also seen him serve as a mercenary co-developer on Ghostrunner or as a portage factory (Daymare: 1998).
A bullet in the buffet
The news first broke via the Twitter account of Scott Miller, father of Duke Nukem. “Several consistent sources told me the bad news… […] Many people, including developers, will soon be looking for work.“Although this new version of 3D Realms is far from Scott Miller’s version, the game designer collaborated with the new team until its acquisition by Embracer in 2021. Hence his information. The dismissals were unofficially confirmed by the LinkedIn or Twitter accounts of the people concerned, starting with the composer and level designer Michael Markie.
Several sources have told me this bad news… Sorry to hear about another drop of the axis by Embracer Group, this time landing on Danish 3D Realms. A lot of people, including core devs, will be looking for work asap. Hopefully they land jobs soon. This one hits me hard because I…
— Scott Miller – Apogee/3DR Founder☢️ (@ScottApogee) December 14, 2023
Embracer has become the black cat of the industry with no fewer than 772 developers fired between June and November according to official figures. So that doesn’t count 3D Realms and Slipgate, nor the dead-resurrected studio Free Radical, set up again in 2021 to finally unearth the Timesplitters franchise, but sent back into its long sleep before being able to publish anything.
We also know that New World Interactive (Insurgency: Sandstorm) would have, at best, lost a large portion of its employees and canceled an internal project, or at worst, shut down at the beginning of December. GamesIndustry.biz counts between 6,000 and 10,000 positions cut this year in the industry.