It won't happen in the next few days, and it may not happen in the next few months either. But the intention to bring the classic Duke Nukem 3D to the Xbox Live Arcade is clearly there, as far as 3D Realms is concerned. Microsoft, on the other hand, might not be as thrilled about letting ol' Duke blast his way on the XBLA - even though the Xbox Live version of Doom turned out to be one of the most exciting news to come out of X06 last week. They're both brutal shooters. They're equally pixelated by today's standards. So what's different?

Basically, nothing. Well, bar some pixelated T&A. But is there any other reason why Duke Nukem 3D can't make the jump over to Xbox Live in the near future?

Actually, yes, there's plenty of reasons. One setback is Microsoft's "picky" policy about what games are allowed on the XBLA. Then there's the tight schedule for XBLA releases, which is supposedly "booked solid for quite awhile now". Then there's 3D Realms' lack of time to do a proper port of the game. And last but not least, it's their defeatist attitude regarding this subject, despite assurances to the contrary from 3D Realms' webmaster Joe Siegler.

The issue of "Duke 3D for Xbox Live Arcade!" was recently brought up on the developer's forums, where Joe gave his thoughts on the matter:

"You'd be surprised what they've turned down. DOn't just assume MS will want it just because you like it, and it's popular. Hate to sound defeatiest, but it's not as easy as "send it to Micorosoft and get it on there". It's a rather complicated procedure, and MS is fairly picky about what goes on there.

(...)

I talked about this yesterday with George [Broussard], he's all up for the idea, but we don't have the time to do the port ourselves, plus there's the issue of whetther Microsoft would really want it. Don't just assume they would, there's a big submissions procedure to go through. Plus their release schedule is booked solid for quite awhile now, even if we delivered it to them today, I would imagine it wouldnt' come out for awhile anyway."

Well what can I say... At least it's not about Duke Nukem Forever this time! And good luck bringing ol' Duke back to life.

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"Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment - an EA company". This is what the Swedish developer's placeholder website reads as of today, after Electronic Arts announced that they have finalized the acquisition of DICE. Which goes whithout saying, is the same studio that created the Battlefield series, and is just about done with their latest project, Battlefield 2142 (coming October 17).

It's been a long and tedious story, since Electronic Arts began its shocking series of investments in late 2004. That's when the NFL license fell under EA's monopoly, when they ripped almost 20% shares out of Ubisoft, and a similar chunk out of DICE. They initially hoped to swallow 90% of the Swedish studio in one scoop, only to be rejected by several key shareholders at that time. In the end, however, EA prevailed... (cue mortuary song)

In January 2005, Electronic Arts increased their stake in Digital Illusions to nearly 60%, and by March 2006 a full merger between the two companies became inevitable. A merger which, as of today, is complete, after a final investment on EA's behalf worth around $24 million. As a result, DICE is now "a fully integrated EA studio dedicated to growing the Battlefield franchise and developing new products for the PC, next generation consoles and other new platforms". I wonder when the "Origin syndrome", a.k.a. "Westwood syndrome" will kick in.

As a great Jew once said: "EA does not play DICE with the world". Or something along those lines.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)