PAX 2010: Duke Nukem Forever: the long road from myth to reality

Another PAX has come to a close, and once again its three days of events were filled with highlights from game demos, concerts, contests, and panels. But nothing can top the earth-shattering news during its first day when attendees and gaming journalists alike found out that Duke Nukem Forever had risen from its development grave thanks to its publisher 2K Games and Gearbox Software. How can this be?

As many of us know, Duke Nukem Forever was first announced back in 1997, but languished in development hell for about 12 years. This was in no small part due to Duke Nukem series co-creator George Broussard’s notoriously perfectionist approach to game development. Every time a new game engine came out, Duke Nukem Forever was pushed back another year or so as it got redesigned. Furthermore, Broussard kept wanting to add various features in the game.

With constant changes and delays in development, 3D Realms went through money like a fat boy at an all-you-can-eat buffet. By 2009 the company was broke and was forced to fire its Duke Nukem Forever team. The gaming community thought that the game was finally dead. Even Wired Magazine, which put Duke Nukem Forever on its Vaporware list every year, gave it a proper burial.

But all was not lost.

Speaking to a small room of us bewildered journalists during the second day at PAX, Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford gave the lowdown. Clad in a well-worn Duke Nukem 3D T-shirt given to him by Broussard ages ago, Pitchford explained that he worked on Duke Nukem 3D. He left 3D Realms in 1997 to form Gearbox.

Like the rest of the gaming community, Pitchford watched from the sidelines as his former company’s indecisiveness with graphics engines and other game mechanics delayed the game year after year. He too, was teased with occasional trailers and screenshots supposedly heralding Duke’s return.

“We also went through the range of emotions,” said Pitchford. “We loved DN 3D so we were like, ‘Yeah! Hells yeah!’ or like, ‘Oh that trailer was awesome, it seems like this is gonna work out,’ to like, ‘It seems like it’s taking a while.’ Or, “Oh wow screenshot!’ to ‘Seriously guys, what the f–k is going on now?’”

When 3D Realms all but folded in 2009, everyone thought that Duke was kaput. To make things worse, publisher 2K Games, which had been ponying up a lot of cash to 3D Realms over the years to make Duke Nukem Forever, brought the lawsuit hammer on them for breach of contract in failing to create the game. Eventually the two sides settled, but Duke’s fate still seemed sealed.

As fate would have it, many of the laid-off Duke Nukem Forever team went on to work at Gearbox. Although they no longer needed to work on the game, they refused to let Duke go out like a bitch.

“The story was Duke was dead,” said Pitchford. “I’m sorry but…you can’t kill Duke, and if I have any freaking thing to do with it, you won’t be able to kill Duke.”

When Pitchford heard about the team’s attempts to bring Duke back, he flexed his executive muscles and convinced 2K Games to agree to help finance the project one more time. And to further show that they were serious in finally bringing the game to fruition, Gearbox bought the Duke Nukem IP from 3D Realms.

It’s very telling that Gearbox waited to announce Duke Nukem Forever at PAX instead of at E3, which was a few months ago. this was a conscious experiment.

“Well, this is not a game where we can make promises. If I went to you guys and said, ‘Let’s write a story…let’s do stories about Duke Nukem Forever’, no one’s gonna trust me. No one’s even gonna trust you guys. If I’m at home reading a story on the internet about Duke Nukem Forever I’d think, ‘Yeah right. I don’t believe it.’” said Pitchford.

The Gearbox President added, “So we decided that the best strategy is to not say a damn thing. Let’s get it so that we’re in the polishing stages of the game. And let’s put the game in the hands of gamers. Because actual people playing the game is the only way they’ll believe. That’s why we’re here at PAX. We didn’t take it to E3, because that’s a show about retailers. That’s a show about Best Buy and GameStop, and it’s about journalists, and gamers technically aren’t even allowed into E3. PAX is about gamers so we brought the game here and we just said, ‘Let’s bring it here and let people play it and let the chips fall where they may.’”

So far, the chips seem to be falling in all the right places. All throughout PAX hundreds of attendees waited patiently for hours at the 2K booth at the chance to play Duke Nukem Forever. Now let’s hope that Gearbox really makes good on its promise that the game will come out in 2011.

Site [Duke Nukem Forever]