14 DAY TRIAL // After being stuck in development for almost 15 years, Duke Nukem Forever was finally launched last year by Gearbox Software and, while its reception wasn’t the best, the studio’s boss, Randy Pitchford, says lots of positive feedback was gathered from players.
Duke Nukem Forever became an urban legend in the gaming industry as, after being announced back in 1997 by 3D Realms, it was stuck in development until 2009, when the studio closed its doors.
While everything seemed lost, Gearbox Software swooped in and bought the project in order to complete it and finally release Duke Nukem Forever.
"I took the risk to dive into the middle of that and be the one to finish it," the studio’s boss, Randy Pitchford, told Vox Games. "I bought the game and the brand and said look, this is never coming out unless we do something. I thought it was a worthwhile thing to do and I am very proud of [it]."
Its reception wasn’t very impressive, however, as lots of people had extremely high expectations after such a long wait.
"In the case of Duke Nukem Forever, there has been 15 years of expectations built up," he said. "There are a lot of people who were perfectly gratified by the game; they liked the surprises, the details of how the humor manifested itself or how the scenarios manifested themselves. And there were other people, because of the development effort or because of the way it’s been upsold throughout the years, there is just no possible way to meet or exceed such expectations."
Still, Pitchford says that lots of positive feedback came in from those who played the game and this means that at least the effort of releasing Duke Nukem Forever had been worth it.
"The true definition of quality," he added, "is not about things like fidelity or features, or you know production values, or anything like that. The true definition of quality ... is to what extent does the thing meet or exceed expectations of the customer."
Pitchford declined to comment on rumors that Gearbox was working on a new Duke Nukem title, but he did say that it all depended on fans and on the desire of the team to go back to the iconic series.