By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

If you “always bet on Duke,” then you’ve made a bad bet. Game developer 3D Realms, publisher of the seminal first-person shooters Wolfenstein 3D and Duke Nukem, has closed its doors. This is bad news for FPS fans that have been looking forward to Duke Nukem Forever, the planned follow-up game, for the past twelve years that it’s been in development.

Of course, most of the gaming industry suspected that Duke Nukem Forever would never see the light of day even with 3D Realms up and running, so the news may not make a big difference in the scheme of things. And on the bright side, apparently the Duke Nukem Trilogy planned for DS and PSP is unaffected by this development and still in the works.

Though this story is hitting the web hard this morning, there are some who think it might be a rumor; 1UP suggests that it might even be a publicity stunt to get people talking about the game. Seems unlikely to me – for a game that has been in development for twelve years, the news that it’s not happening is probably less newsworthy than if it’s finally finished.

Of course, FPS fans aside, the real downer in all of this is that the company closing means more game developers out of jobs.

[Image Source: Flickr]