3D Realms CEO Hints At Future of Duke Nukem Franchise

Action movies are always full of clichés. You know, there’s always the part where the villain thinks that his henchmen have finally killed off that pesky hero that’s been such a thorn in his side since the very first scene and then, just when his evil scheme starts to come together, the damn hero shows up, very much still alive, and saves the day. And like all those action hero clichés that he’s based on, Duke Nukem also has a bad habit of showing up again long after you think he’s finally been laid to rest.

For example, I bet you thought Duke was done for good when, earlier this year, 3D Realms shut down the internal studio which had been working on Duke Nukem Forever for the last, oh, twelve years or so. Oh sure, since then we’ve heard that Deep Silver and Apogee Software are still bringing Duke’s older adventures to the DS and PSP in Duke Nukem Trilogy, and there have been rumblings of a film in the works, so the franchise isn’t totally dead. But those are more like tributes to Duke’s past than new products; surely our dreams of playing a totally new chapter in the Duke Nukem saga died along with Forever, right?

Apparently not. According to an interview with 3D Realms CEO Scott Miller, printed in the very first issue of Gamesauce magazine, there are actually “numerous” Duke games in development right now; some of them are even planned for release this upcoming year.

“There are numerous other Duke games in various stages of development, several due out this year. We are definitely looking to bring Duke into casual gaming spaces, plus there are other major Duke games in production. … Almost all of these [projects] are unannounced”

“Casual gaming spaces”? Maybe Mr. Nukem will finally be cleaning up his act a bit… nah, I don’t think so.

Some games that Miller may have possibly been referring to are the aforementioned Duke Nukem Trilogy, at least two iPhone games that Miller has hinted at in the past, a rumored XBLA port of Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, or perhaps the mysterious ‘D-Day’ that Duke himself has mentioned on his Facebook page. Actually, for a supposedly dead franchise, it sounds like Duke has been keeping himself pretty busy!

Miller even denied that the infamous Duke Nukem Forever was officially cancelled:

“we’ve never said that Duke Nukem Forever has ceased development, … yes, we released the internal team, but that doesn’t correlate to the demise of the project.”

So it turns out Duke Nukem isn’t as dead as we all thought. For your sake, I hope you’re not an evil space alien plotting to steal all of Earth’s strippers so that you can breed with them, because if you were, this is probably the part of the movie where Duke would show up at the last minute to bust up your evil scheme in typical action hero style.

Now if only Commander Keen would prove to be as resilient as Duke is, I could be in Apogee nostalgia heaven…

[Via: Shacknews]

Tags: 3D Realms Duke Nukem Duke Nukem Forever Duke Nukem Trilogy Gamesauce Interview Scott Miller