"The worst aspect of the continuing pace of game development that we fell into was the longer and longer times between releases. If I could go back in time and change one thing along the trajectory of id Software, it would be, do more things more often. And that was id’s mantra for so long: 'It’ll be done when it’s done.' And I recant from that. I no longer think that is the appropriate way to build games. I mean, time matters, and as years go by—if it’s done when it’s done and you’re talking a month or two, fine. But if it’s a year or two, you need to be making a different game."
This is what ultimately did 3D Realms and Duke Nukem Forever in.
There was a lot of overlap between Apogee Software (later, 3D Realms) and id Software in the early days. The mantra of 3D Realms was, during Nuke Forever, that the game will be done when it's done.
That mantra works great at a small scale. But when AAA titles go from Duke3d to Halo/CoD within the span of one development iteration, you're screwed. The cost of keeping up was, I suspect, just too great for a company the size of 3D Realms to keep up. Even id Software was diminishing, post-Quake 3.
Companies like Blizzard and EA have the resources to pump out WoW expansion #9, or Madden 2035 or whatever. For better or worse (my opinion, usually worse) the industry has become more like Hollywood blockbusters. The whole world hears about when GTA 5 comes out and makes billions of dollars the first week, or whatever. As a result, we're just going to get what Hollywood gives us in movies: sequel after sequel.
"The worst aspect of the continuing pace of game development that we fell into was the longer and longer times between releases. If I could go back in time and change one thing along the trajectory of id Software, it would be, do more things more often. And that was id’s mantra for so long: 'It’ll be done when it’s done.' And I recant from that. I no longer think that is the appropriate way to build games. I mean, time matters, and as years go by—if it’s done when it’s done and you’re talking a month or two, fine. But if it’s a year or two, you need to be making a different game."