Grave Gamer News & Views — randy pitchford

Gearbox Boss Says Duke Nukem Will Return (Eventually)

Duke Nukem Forever was a fucking travesty. After 14 years in development – in which time it was announced and unannounced for a plethora of different consoles – the once 3D Realms owned IP finally saw new life in 2011 once Texan dev and industry darling Gearbox Software acquired the franchise.

But too many cooks cluttering the kitchen, dated code, and archaic design turned the high-profile Duke into the butt of a joke no one found remotely funny (or very playable). It wasn’t a stretch to figure that Duke was dead after that very loud misfire.

Gearbox’s CEO and face man, Randy Pitchford, says that’s not all to the story, though. “I did not acquire the franchise merely so we could all experience Duke Nukem Forever,” said Pitchford to a Develop Conference crowd today. “That was the toll to pay to give Duke a chance.”

Randy went on to reveal that Gearbox has actually tooled around with concepts for what’s to be a brand new Duke Nukem entry. Stickler is, Gearbox is too busy to dive into development themselves. Between the upcoming Battleborn, a promising merger of FPS and MOBA of all things, and sparking the fire that’s to become the third Borderlands, revisiting Mr. Nukem would be spreading the studio thin.

“I think the faster way is that a correct developer can become interested and we can work with them,” said Pitchford. “I think it’s a challenging problem. But, I’ll tell you one thing. When it does happen, there’s no doubt that the whole industry will turn its head and look.“

He’s talking about a similar working relationship to the one that brought Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel to life, in which 2K Australia took over devin’ while Gearbox oversaw the project (unfortunately, the Down Under developer was shuttered a few months back, putting them out of the running for new Duke).

Randy seems excited to give Duke a proper revitalization, even acknowledging DNF was far from that, but, uh, should Duke come back? Duke Nukem is a byproduct of an era where action heroes gnawed on cigars while pumping seemingly endless rounds of machine-gun fire into their one-dimensional foes before spitting out a quip so hammy you could hear it ‘oink.’

As the years go by,  Duke’s name holds less and less weight, and the virtual disaster that was Duke Nukem Forever all but killed any shred of fondness fans had for the franchise. Not saying there can’t be a great new Duke Nukem game. Right minds, right time kinda thing. But, goddamn, how likely is that to happen again?

“I’m not going to fuck around with you like Valve does with Half-Life 3. Look. We know we want it and we know it should exist, but we don’t know what it is yet.

But we are doing things in Borderlands that we’ll announce soon, that are good, and that I think people will be really excited about if you love the franchise.”

– Randy Pitchford, CEO and President of Gearbox Software, updating Polygon on the status of a Borderlands 3.

Oh, Randy. I salute you. You can check out Mr. Pitchford’s full interview with Polygon here. The basic jist is that, no, Gearbox isn’t working on a Borderlands sequel right now because no single great, extravagant, kickass idea has emerged just yet.

Slap that frown off your face, though. With projects like Tales From the Borderlands in gestation, you’ll be back on Pandora faster than you can say “Get ready for bad touch!”

Here’s a “scoop” posted by Gearbox’s own Randy Pitchford.  This ain’t some simple cosplaying here.  They look like they’re gearing up some live action Borderlands, if you ask me.

I’m going to have to put a “keep your eyes open as this story develops” right about here, which undoubtedly means: “I don’t know what the hell they’re up to.”

“When I first watched Aliens, the very next thing I did was get my friends to watch it with me so we could have that shared experience. Well now you are not just experiencing it or kind of witnessing it, you’re participating in it. From the sequel, that’s actually a video game you are participating in it, and if you want to do that alone, great; you want to do that with friends, great. We designed it so it works in both contexts.”

Gearbox Software’s main man, Randy Pitchford, touching on the much anticipated sci-fi shooter opus, Aliens: Colonial Marines.  Try not to rely on the old phrase “safety in numbers,” though.  You’re trapped on LV-426 with a finite supply of ammo and the succinct disadvantage of having non-acidic blood.  Those are awful odds in any situation.