What is the longest production of a game?

[mattpegher]

Was checking out the E3 reviews again and noted that "the Secret World" has been in production since 2004. I know that these things change hands and teams and get put on the back burner but 8 years? Seems like the technology would have changed so much to make any early work obsolete.

 

[Josh123]

Duke Nukem?

 

[Lonyo]

Yeah, is this a serious question?
Duke Nukem was being shown for over a decade. Not sure anything else has been officially in production for that long (as in, beyond concept/idea stage and actually announced).

 

[gorcorps]

I remember people saying Prey had been in production nearly as long as DNF before it finally came out. DNF definitely takes the crown though. There's a ton of games that just never get made so those don't really count, but DNF was actively (but slowly) developed for a very long time before the studio folded, Gearbox picked up the pieces, and put out the game that 3D realms should have been able to make in 2-3 years.

 

[Dankk]

Team Fortress 2 started development in 1998, and wasn't released until 2007 (a total of 9 years).

Duke Nukem Forever started development in 1996, and wasn't released until 2011 (a total of 15 years).

The important thing about both these games though is that they went through multiple iterations and multiple engines before finally being finished. For example, many people complain about Duke Nukem Forever for it's quality not living up to fifteen years of development, but that's because the DNF you see today actually took nowhere near fifteen years to make. Rather, DNF as it is was probably in development since ~2008 or so. Any versions of the game before that were totally scrapped and lost in favor of newer technology.

 

[Skott]

Probably DNF. Battle Cruiser 3000 was another but it did get released finally although it was a incomplete flop.

 

[Josh123]

Team Fortress 2 started development in 1998, and wasn't released until 2007 (a total of 9 years).

Duke Nukem Forever started development in 1996, and wasn't released until 2011 (a total of 15 years).

The important thing about both these games though is that they went through multiple iterations and multiple engines before finally being finished. For example, many people complain about Duke Nukem Forever for it's quality not living up to fifteen years of development, but that's because the DNF you see today actually took nowhere near fifteen years to make. Rather, DNF as it is was probably in development since ~2008 or so. Any versions of the game before that were totally scrapped and lost in favor of newer technology.

Ya I remember reading up on Team Fortress 2 when I was playing the original one and being stoked about it. The TF2 that is out now is NOTHING like the previews showed back in the day.

 

[dud]

Team Fortress 2 started development in 1998, and wasn't released until 2007 (a total of 9 years).

Duke Nukem Forever started development in 1996, and wasn't released until 2011 (a total of 15 years).

The important thing about both these games though is that they went through multiple iterations and multiple engines before finally being finished. For example, many people complain about Duke Nukem Forever for it's quality not living up to fifteen years of development, but that's because the DNF you see today actually took nowhere near fifteen years to make. Rather, DNF as it is was probably in development since ~2008 or so. Any versions of the game before that were totally scrapped and lost in favor of newer technology.

Ding ding ding ... I think we have a winner. When you consider the time it took to develop DNF and the end product ... you are left scratching your head in amazement.

 

[shortylickens]

Obviously Duke Nukem Forever.

BUT, I was told Max Payne had been started long before 3D acceleration even existed, and had been rebuilt from the ground up many times over, much like Duke Nukem Forever.

 

[JackSpadesSI]

Diablo III is getting up there. Development started in 2001, after D2:LoD was released. 10 years and counting...

 

[shortylickens]

Diablo III is getting up there. Development started in 2001, after D2:LoD was released. 10 years and counting...

Yeah but they admitted it wasnt serious for many years. They had to get on Ghost which was eventually cancelled, and then StarCraft 2.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Yeah but they admitted it wasnt serious for many years. They had to get on Ghost which was eventually cancelled, and then StarCraft 2.

From what I understand, everything at Blizzard was paused when instead of a several hundred thousand playing WoW like they expected several million tried to.

As someone else said, the DNF that is out now was really only being produced for a couple of years (if that).