No, 3dfx is Not Coming Back

A Twitter page going by @3dfxofficial has made the rounds in social media in the past few days causing some discussion that the company is coming back to business.

For those unfamiliar, 3dfx Interactive was a 3D graphics processing unit manufacturer that started in 1994 and is hailed as one of the key figures in developing what we currently know as the graphics card. Their Voodoo line of graphics cards helped accelerate 3D games back in its era and is also the maker of the Glide API.

NVIDIA eventually bought the company’s assets in year 2000 along with all their IPs including their trade names and 3dfx filed for bankruptcy in 2002.

This means that NVIDIA formally owns the Voodoo graphics names. That said, the mentioned Twitter page is has recently posted this statement:

https://twitter.com/3dfxofficial/status/1422814559870455809

Tech media were quick to verify the named parties, also verifying applied names and anything related to business to check the pages’ claims.

With no valid names related to the statement made, the majority of folks are calling this a hoax and we can clearly agree. Still, in these times where GPUs are in high demand but prices are also sky high, some humor may be needed to lighten the mood.

Although in the world of gaming, something like this isn’t new. It could just be marketing, and to find out more, one has to know how a certain Hideo Kojima has done it before:

In one of his most elaborate reveals, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was first introduced by a new studio named Moby Dick Studios. The internet was quick to spot some details that revealed that the trailer presented had negative space in the title that match “Metal Gear Solid V”. Kojima kept the ruse until finally revealing later on that it was indeed a new MGS game.

The correlation is that this could be a marketing stunt from NVIDIA or related agency for whatever new reveal they in store. The Twitter account’s most recent post has a photo of the 3dfx logo with the text stating “August 5th”.

https://twitter.com/3dfxofficial/status/1422033124666396674

Again, we’re clearly sure this is a hoax but fans hopeful to see some action in the GPU space are actually hoping this could be a new company restarting the 3dfx brand (besides NVIDIA doing a big rickroll). Alas, this is the worst time to release a brand as the silicon shortage would limit a new player in competing against AMD and NVIDIA. Still, one can dream.