You know the story; it’s been in development so long, that some of our readers weren’t even born yet when it was announced. After a ludicrously drawn-out 15 years in the oven, Duke Nukem Forever has finally gone gold. No really, we’re not making this up; development on the game has wrapped. The endlessly delayed FPS sequel to Duke’s 1996 outing (1996!) will make its North American launch date of June 14. Even 2K’s press release poked fun at the game’s absurd development cycle, proclaiming it: “Vaporware no more!”
For years, the game had been the butt of just about every joke made about the industry. “Yeah, that’ll happen…when Duke Nukem Forever releases!” Back in 2009, Randy Pitchford and his teams at Gearbox Software, Piranha Games and Triptych Games took over the project from troubled developer 3D Realms, and vowed to release it before we all died of old age. 2K President Christoph Harmann had this to say on the matter: “Duke Nukem Forever is the game that was once thought to be unshipppable, and yet here we are, on the precipice of history”.
With Duke finally on his way, can flying pigs and peace in the Middle East be far behind? More importantly, what about hover-boards? We’ve been waiting a long time for those; come on already engineers of the world, get on that!
A demo for First Access Club members will be available on June 3. For more Duke coverage, check out Rob’s hands-on impressions from PAX East in March.
[Image courtesy of 3D Realms.]
