Rumor: Gearbox Developing Duke Nukem Forever

When the words “Rumor” and “Kotaku” go together, you might as well start chomping on a salt lick, but they cite “sources who wished to remain anonymous” in claiming that Duke Nukem Forever, the legendary vaporware, is now in development at Gearbox Software. Cursory analysis doesn’t come up with any reason this can’t happen, though. Since Take-Two retains the rights to publish a game with the title Duke Nukem Forever, nothing’s preventing them from shopping the project out to other developers.

Gearbox has a history of jumping from publisher to publisher on a per-project basis as well. They’ve worked with Sierra for Half-Life: Opposing Force, Ubisoft for Brothers in Arms, and 2K Games for Borderlands. Simply put, they’re not in any developer’s pocket, so they’d be free to take up a new project of this magnitude without having to deal with any political pressure.

Additionally, Gearbox was recently connected to a defunct project titled Duke Begins. This means that they’d already have access to technical and art assets which would not only assist them in putting together a development pitch, but also accelerate any development. Were I a decision maker at Take Two, any mention of accelerated development would be sweet music to my ears.

If this is true, we can count on Gearbox and Take Two to also bring Duke Nukem Forever to consoles as well. Many are looking to PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) for announcements, but I’d expect an announcement of this magnitude at an event with more gravity, or at least used in a more crowded marketing atmosphere. Duke Nukem Forever is the universal press trump card, after all.

[via Kotaku]