Former 3D Realms studio head George Broussard may have spent between US$20 million and US$30 million of his personal funds trying to keep the Duke Nukem: Forever project afloat. At least, that’s what Gearbox head Randy Pitchford said when speaking to the press at an event in London over the weekend.
Pitchford recounted the events leading up to 3D realms’ demise and Gearbox’s acquisition: “There was the bad news in May 2009. You all saw the stories; 3D Realms was shutting down, Duke was dead. That sucked. It was tough being in Dallas, many of my friends lost their jobs.”
“I spoke to George Broussard and he said, ‘Randy, this is the worst day of my life’ but you could hear in his voice there was more. This was 12 years of his life… try and imagine what you’ve achieved in 12 years, Gearbox has made 15 games in that time,” said Pitchford.
“George Broussard is not a poor man but I would estimate that he lost 20 to 30 million dollars of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever – I don’t care who you are, that’s a hell of a lot of money. He was committed to Duke to the point of insanity… and now Duke was dead. He decided he would rather have it burn that have a bad version of the game come out,” continued Pitchford.
Luckily for us (perhaps) the Duke Nukem: Forever project was picked up by Gearbox Software, whom are best known in recent times for their sleeper hit, Borderlands. Gearbox also developed some great Half-Life add-ons (Opposing Force and Blue Shift) as well as the Brothers in Arms series of WWII shooters.
Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has ties with 3D Realms, having worked on the infant stages of DNF when he was just starting out in the development industry. Gearbox picked up the project where 3D Realms left off, and reportedly, the game is mostly complete, with polishing remaining.
A demo has been promised, and Borderlands: GOTY buyers can secure first access to the DNF demo when it’s finally released.
Source: CVG
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