14 DAY TRIAL // 3D Realms decided to confront news regarding the employee exodus at the company, downplaying some of the recent departures from the Duke Nukem Forever staff. After nearly 10 years, the game seems to be in the "polish" stage. According Shack News' report Scott Alden, Will Bate, Brian Cozzens, Kyle Davis, Andy Hanson, Keith Schuler, and Charlie Wiederhold have all moved on since last December. It's understandably disturbing since several have headed up crucial game systems such as physics, animation, and rendering. Parts of them are now working for Brothers in Arms developer Gearbox Software.
3D Realms President George Broussard responded on Shack's message boards insisting that Duke Numen Forever is right on track: "Physics and animation systems are virtually finished and shippable. It's simply maintenance and polish from here on out. We haven't needed to make substantial changes to those systems in months. The changes we have made were made without great effort."
Later on, 3D Realms webmaster Joe Siegler commented on their forums: "There's honestly nothing to be concerned about. People leave. People come. There's staff on the project you don't know about. You know some, you don't know most. There's truly nothing to worry about. I know from your end it would seem bad, and if I wasn't still working here and knew more, I'd probably feel the same way."
After all this time we might actually see the finished product one day, although it's strange such important figures in the already dwindling team decided to raise camp and leave, with the project so close to completion.