3D Realms

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Corporate logo of 3D Realms

3D Realms is an alias name for the computer game publisher and developer based in Garland, Texas, Apogee Software. The name 3D Realms was initially created as a branding label in July 1994 for use by Apogee which would be dedicated to just 3D games (as Apogee was then known for several styles of games). However, shortly after this, 3D games started to dominate the industry, and Apogee decided to direct their focus on this style of game, and as such, the Apogee name was eventually abandoned as a public marketing name in late 1996. While almost everyone refers to the name of the company as '3D Realms', the legal name of the company is still to this day, Apogee Software, Ltd. When the 3D Realms name was first conceived, the official motto was Reality is our Game. That motto has long since fallen out of favor with no official replacement offered.

The company is best known for creating the Build engine computer games Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior.

It is now semi-notorious for its upcoming installment in the Duke Nukem series, Duke Nukem Forever, which as of 2006 is currently 9 years into development (full scale production started late in 1997). However, there have several Duke Nukem games released since Duke Nukem 3D, created by outside developers and released on home consoles and cell phones. As a result of Duke Nukem Forever's long development cycle, 3D Realms has incurred some negative fan feedback. They also stopped unauthorized third parties from using their famous trademarked characters in modifications for other games.

[edit] Current products

The latest Duke Nukem game, Duke Nukem Forever, will be released, according to the company, "when it's done." The 3D Realms development team was apparently understaffed during the first decade of development, but is now picking up speed on the project.

The most recent successes they were associated with was Prey, a game released July 11th 2006 after being stuck in development hell for years, as well as Max Payne sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, which followed on from the 3D Realms produced original.

3D Realms has also been the first company to publicly state they will not support the Wii. In a blog post, Scott Miller stated that he believed the system would be a "distant third" behind the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and that the system would be Nintendo's last.[1]. Notable, though, is the fact that the relationship between Nintendo and 3D Realms has never been strong. This may be because Nintendo heavily censored and stripped down the Nintendo 64 version of Duke Nukem 3D, as well as poor sales of the Gameboy Advance titles Max Payne and Duke Nukem Advance.