Duke Nukem DS and PSP Game Forced to Get New Name

[Logan Westbrook]

Duke Nukem DS and PSP Game Forced to Get New Name

A change of ownership for the Duke Nukem brand has resulted in some hurried rebranding for the upcoming handheld games.

Gearbox's acquisition of the Duke Nukem IP was just the lifeline the long-delayed Duke Nukem Forever needed. It wasn't such good news for Frontline Studio's DS and PSP game, Duke Nukem: Critical Mass, however, as the studio's deal to use the Duke Nukem brand seems to have come to an abrupt end.

In its quarterly newsletter [http://frontstudios.com/downloads/FRONTLINE_Q42010_NEWSLETTER.pdf], Frontline said that Critical Mass was still coming out, but it wasn't going to be a Duke Nukem game anymore. Frontline has renamed the game, Extraction Point: Alien Shootout, and swapped Duke out for a new protagonist by the name of Cam Nash. Alien Shootout is set in 2012, and as the name suggests, revolves around shooting aliens. Apparently Nash had long harbored dreams of being an action hero, so the alien invasion and the subsequent collapse of society actually came as quite a welcome occurrence.

The rebranding will obviously present problems for Frontline, not least of which is the fact that it now has to try and sell a brand new IP, rather than a game that had some brand recognition behind it. It doesn't help that the rebranding looks to have been done in a hurry, as all the screenshots in the newsletter still feature Duke Nukem. It seems pretty likely that Extraction Point is going to get missed by a lot of people, although presumably, Frontline will have adjusted its sales projections to allow for that.

Announced back in 2008 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84992-Apogee-Returns-With-New-Duke-Nukem-Action], Critical Mass was to be the first part of a Duke Nukem trilogy, with other episodes, titled Chain Reaction and Proving Grounds, to follow. 3D Realms, the original, and now defunct, developer of DNF, was set to publish the game, using it as an opportunity to relaunch its Apogee brand name, which had fallen into disuse in the nineties.

Extraction Point: Alien Shootout will be released as a digital download for PSP later this year, and as a download on the 3DS in the second quarter of 2011.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5676889/duke-nukem-stripped-from-upcoming-duke-nukem-games?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+kotaku/full+(Kotaku)]




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[Simalacrum]

Oh lord, I remember the trailer for the Duke Nukem Trilogy... it was awful to the point of laughable XD

OT: I think that the Duke Nukem Trilogy (or whatever their going to be calling it from now on) don't stand a chance - they simply haven't had the press coverage of DNF, and, now with a new name, it's going to be even harder to recognise it above all the other games on portable systems.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Well,, this is definitely going to flop now, regardless of quality.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Frontline has renamed the game, Extraction Point: Alien Shootout, and swapped Duke out for a new protagonist by the name of Cam Nash. Alien Shootout is set in 2012, and as the name suggests, revolved around shooting aliens.

They should've called him "Duke Nukum" and made him a big yellow guy dressed like a tourist in Hawaii. Just to confuse the hell out of everyone.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

The rebranding will obviously present problems for Frontline, not least of which is the fact that it now has to try and sell a brand new IP, rather than a game that had some brand recognition behind it.

I'm tempted to play the World's Tiniest Violin, here. If it wasn't good enough to stand on its own merits, it probably wasn't a good enough game, period. And if the Duke Nukem name is a big enough deal that people would have still bought the game for name recognition alone, shame on them. What's stopping me from playing that violin is that even if this game does stand up on its own, I know they're going to have a much harder time selling it than if they had the Duke Nukem branding. Sadly, such is the market.

Huh, did they ever think of asking Gearbox if they could still publish the game in the first place? I mean hey it speaks a bit that they believe their game will hold up without his name, but seeing how Gearbox has handled the franchise so far leads me to believe they'd be alright with it remaining "Duke Nukem: Critical Mass".

edit: Unless, of course, it sucked alien-pig balls.

Also this.

 

[mjc0961]

I hadn't even heard of these when they were Duke Nukem games.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Eh, better yet, invert his colors, then call him "Nuke Dukum".

Or revive Apogee's old Bio Menace brand. (I think it's theirs.) Snake Logan to the rescue! Watch him phase in and out of a random accent with such classic lines as "Ya, it's a real pile!" Watch him enrage Commander Keen by accidentally demoting him! Meet RoboPal, a psychotic boy's favorite toy!

 

[MadGodXero]

....Wahhhhh? Really, Extraction point: Alien Shootout? IU could come up with better names in my sleep......speaking of which...

 

[BrunDeign]

See, now if Gearbox doesn't let them use the Duke Nukem name, that seems a hell of a lot like bullying to me. Didn't Gearbox say something about them not liking bullying in the industry?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Wait, what? There were Duke Nukem games for the DS and PSP coming out? Someone in marketing totally ignored that whole "marketing" aspect of his job.

As for swapping the protagonist, it could work if the game wasn't a deep character study of Duke Nukem...

HAHAHAHA!

Yeah, this will be fine as long as the game is a good explosion generator bloodfest. If it is only mediocre, it will lose sales not only because it sucks but also because it no longer has the draw of Duke Nukem's name.

 

[Dr Bob]

Frontline has renamed the game, Extraction Point: Alien Shootout, and swapped Duke out for a new protagonist by the name of Cam Nash. Alien Shootout is set in 2012, and as the name suggests, revolved around shooting aliens.

They should've called him "Duke Nukum" and made him a big yellow guy dressed like a tourist in Hawaii. Just to confuse the hell out of everyone.

I laughed so hard at this.

Frontline has renamed the game, Extraction Point: Alien Shootout, and swapped Duke out for a new protagonist by the name of Cam Nash. Alien Shootout is set in 2012, and as the name suggests, revolved around shooting aliens.

They should've called him "Duke Nukum" and made him a big yellow guy dressed like a tourist in Hawaii. Just to confuse the hell out of everyone.

Eh, better yet, invert his colors, then call him "Nuke Dukum".

This too.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I was thinking they should name him Mukud Ekun just to screw with people. But they're more worried about getting sued than being funny.

Dunno if I'll pick them up, though.

 

[samsonguy920]

As the developer for "Duke Nukem: Critical
Mass" we were blown away by our publisher's
marketing tactics while at GDC in San Francisco
when Deep Silver had put urinal pads in all the
men's rooms with "Duke-isms" on them. Then at
the popular watering-hole (Jillian's) across the
street, every cocktail napkin and coaster in this
fairly large establishment had a Duke-ism on
them such as, "When all else fails, I don't. -
Duke." Now that's some good stuff and by the
end of the event there were even several Urinal
Pads.. uh.. missing.

That's some funny shit, but sadly it is now vacuous effort. Too bad. They got an interestingly racy IP in there I wouldn't mind seeing the progress of. It's worth taking a peek at the newsletter to see.

See, now if Gearbox doesn't let them use the Duke Nukem name, that seems a hell of a lot like bullying to me. Didn't Gearbox say something about them not liking bullying in the industry?

Nothing is said about Gearbox not letting them use the name. As it is Frontline Studios is merely respecting who owns the name now and the fact that what contract they had just went bye-bye. They could call up Gearbox and see about acquiring a new license contract but that may add even more a delay to the release of the game than what they are in for now with merely changing names and some faces.
If you want to point fingers here, point them back at 3D Realms for this fiasco. This is collateral damage from that company screwing around and then going kaput themselves for it.

 

[mayney93]

Well,, this is definitely going to flop now, regardless of quality.

this man speaks the truth ... ALL GLORY TO HYPNOTOAD

 

[AgentBJ09]

Sigh.

Oh, well, at least I'm not biting the bullet with my reserve any more and I can put it on something better.

 

[Electrogecko]

2012? I'm going to assume we should replace all the DS's and PSP's in this article with 3DS's and PSP2's.

 

[JediMB]

You'd think that the contract would be transferred to Gearbox when the franchise was sold. Seems sort of unfair that it would just be rendered void.

 

[tce11]

2012? I'm going to assume we should replace all the DS's and PSP's in this article with 3DS's and PSP2's.

The game is set in 2012... It's coming out this year for PSP and Q2 2011 for 3DS. Perhaps actually reading the article would have cleared this up for you.