A new Duke Nukem game may be announced soon
A countdown is underway at the Duke Nukem website, and he's making noise on social media too.
I don't know if
Duke Nukem Forever is really as bad as the legend that's sprung up around it makes out, but it sure wasn't good. Which is probably why, aside from a
little spat with 3D Realms and Interceptor over what eventually became Bombshell (with a heavy emphasis on the “
bomb,” as it turns out), Gearbox has been content to let the franchise lie quietly for the past half-decade. But that may be about to change.
Point yourself at
dukenukem.com, lie to the age gate, and you'll be confronted with a “Happy 20th Anniversary” banner—
Duke Nukem 3D was released in 1996—a “Coming Soon” warning, and a countdown that's currently got eight days and change left on the clock. That puts zero hour at 8:30 pm ET on September 1, a date that means... well, nothing, as far as I know. It's hard to imagine that it doesn't have some significance, if only because Thursday night is such an oddly specific time, but I have no idea what it might be.
Also of note: The Duke Nukem
Facebook page has suddenly come back to life with its first new post since 2012, and a Duke Nukem
Twitter account has appeared. Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is currently bantering with it.
There's no guarantee that all of this will end in the announcement of a new game: We could be looking at Duke Nukem Forever DLC, or DNF Gold, or a Duke Anthology of some sort. But that's awfully unlikely. This a lot of effort, relatively speaking, for anything less than a new game reveal, especially since that's so obviously what people are going to expect. I've reached out to Gearbox to ask about what's going on, and while I don't imagine I'll hear back—why would they blow their own countdown?—I'll let you know if I do.
