Duke Nukem Forever is being completed by Gearbox Software and published by Take-Two. For Randy Pitchford, Gearbox Software president and CEO, he still sees the game as the byproduct of its original designers at 3D Realms.
It’s not my game, said Pitchford. My commitment is to make sure that I and you and we all finally get to play the game we’ve been waiting for all this time. So the commitment that I’ve made with my studio is to make sure 3D Realms’ vision is realized.
“I was at 3D Realms at the very beginning of the project, so the influence that persisted from that point forward is very high level the top-line story of how Duke is enjoying the rewards of his successes, and some time has passed since he saved the world, and it’s this world that the aliens come back into, and he once again has to rise and be the one,” he added. “Also the thread of how he is in his casino in Las Vegas, and there’s Hoover Dam and Area 51 and the deserts of Nevada and Vegas itself and all that stuff. That was all tied in back then too.”
“The question of whether Duke Nukem Forever ultimately will be a success after nearly a decade and a half of development hell may have obscured the IP’s legacy. Well, I made a decision to purchase the franchise and to become the responsible party for shipping the unshippable. When I made that decision, I probably thought about it a little bit, and I probably decided that was a good decision to make. So you probably already know the answer to the question, but yeah, I made the bet. And I made the bet with a lot less information than I have today. When I made the bet, we were still in 2009. I think my crystal ball is pretty good for me on that one.”
Source: Eurogamer {link no longer active}
