Gearbox: more Duke Nukem coming
Pitchford teases Forever follow-up.
Gearbox Software is planning a new Duke Nukem game, CEO Randy Pitchford has confirmed.
As reported by Kotaku, Pitchford announced at PAX this weekend that the studio had picked up the Duke Nukem brand with the intention of eventually making its own entry in the franchise.
"And then soon… I know that you guys figured out that, when Gearbox acquired the franchise, we didn't do it just to make sure we could all play Duke Nukem Forever, but because we wanted to make our own Duke game," he said.
"Soon, we'll talk about that, but not today."
This tallies with comments earlier this year from publisher Take-Two, when CEO Strauss Zelnick promised, "you will see future Duke IP coming from this company."
Elsewhere during his PAX presentation, Pitchford also discussed the 'mixed' response to Forever, insisting he was proud of what Gearbox had achieved.
"I hope some people kind of enjoyed it. When I dug through all the stuff that [the original development studio] 3D Realms had done, I expected a trainwreck and I was actually quite pleased.
"I had a lot of fun with it. It was fun for me, and I'm really glad that we not only rescued the franchise but took the time to make sure the world could see what those guys had been doing for all of those years. And I'm also proud of the things we added to it. I think we did some things to make it a little better."
He also talked up the post-launch improvements Gearbox has made to the game, as well as the upcoming DLC expansion, due out later this year.
"And we're not giving up. We've updated the game. I know the load times weren't very good on the 360 and so some of the patches improve that. I don't know if you guys noticed.
"I think you're really going to like the DLC coming out that's being developed by the guys that actually made Duke Nukem Forever - the guys at Piranha, the guys at Triptych. The Triptych guys are the ex-3D Realms developers. And they're still working at our studio on the 10th floor, and they're committed. They're going to go all the way."