The Rise of Vaporware Day?

It’s amazing that today we see news on, not just one, but two products long thought to have been vaporware.

The first, as you’ve probably all heard by now, is the new Duke Nukem Forever teaser trailer.  The game, which has now been in development for more than 10 years (and announced about 11 years ago) according to Wikipedia, has been a running joke now for the last, say 7-8 years, and is now considered one of the foremost examples of vaporware, “winning” Wired’s vaporware awards several times since 2001 (and placing second in 2000).  Wired even went out of their way to create the “Vaporware Lifetime Achievement” award in 2003 to award to Duke Nukem Forever.  For his part, 3d Realms co-owner George Broussard has steadfastly maintained that the game will be released “when it’s done”, and accepted the award in good humor.  Hopefully this non-commitment to a firm release date means that, if the game ever does see the light of day, it will actually be worth the wait.

As for the second piece of Vaporware today, there’s news of the Phantom Lapboard. That’s right, while the aptly named Phantom console may never see the light of day, somehow or another the company has managed to finally release the keyboard/mouse combo that they were developing for its use.  It’s sort of strange that after all the big promises of the Phantom Console the only thing they were able to release with all of the financing they secured is the “controller” for it, but I suppose it counts for something.

In any case, what do both of these releases have in common?  Well, despite the fact that we’re finally hearing about these vaporware products, both are still a bit underwhelming. While we have not heard or seen much of anything about Duke Nukem Forever since 2001, a new trailer featuring flashy (CG?) graphics but no actual gameplay isn’t likely to get people excited.  Broussard has tried to cool things down a bit by saying it’s just a teaser and that a better trailer will be coming soon, but I can’t help but feel that maybe they should’ve just skipped this “teaser” then because it likely will have the opposite effect of what they’re hoping.  Sure, the graphics look nice and I suppose if that’s how it looks it could be cool, but then just about anything could when you’re not showing actual gameplay.  Certainly, the game could be amazing when it comes out, but the teaser released today basically gives no indication either way.  I’m hoping for the best, but this teaser probably won’t quell many doubts that people have about the game.

As for the Phantom Lapboard?  Well, it’s a decent idea, I suppose, to make it easier to use a mouse and keyboard from the comfort of your couch.  However, I think its utility is probably pretty limited given that most people don’t have a computer hooked up to their TV.  It would probably be a great controller for Unreal Tournament 3 on the PS3 (since it supports a keyboard and mouse), but at $130 I doubt it’ll excite too many people.