Duke Nukem Begins Marks Franchise Reboot By Gearbox

23 August 2011

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Posted by:Josh Romero

Duke Begins will officially reboot the Duke Nukem franchise in 2012.

Duke Begins is the title that was previously in development by Gearbox before they got ahold of the Duke Nukem license and finally completed and released the critically-panned, million-selling Duke Nukem Forever.

Apparently Duke Nukem Forever was enough of a success that Gearbox is planning to completely revive the Duke Nukem IP by bringing their previously cancelled Duke Begins project back from the dead and releasing it as an all-new Duke Nukem title!

However this won’t take place until after the completion of the long-awaited Aliens: Colonial Marines, which is currently in development by Gearbox and not set for release until Spring of 2012.

The reason for waiting to revive Duke is probably, on-the-one-hand, in order to let the dust settle from Duke Nukem Forever, and let those horrible gaming moments fade from the view of the public a bit. The other is the fact that Gearbox has its hands full with plenty of other projects, no less than three, including Borderlands 2, Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 and the aforementioned Aliens: Colonial Marines. And those games will arguably take precedent over the Duke man. And who knows what else Gearbox is working on.

Duke did recently celebrate his 20th anniversary (on July 1st, 2011), which is a huge milestone. And besides Duke Nukem Forever, other Duke games were also recently relased including a Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project port for Xbox Live Arcade last year, and the DS title Duke Nukem: Critical Mass released in June.

Maybe Gearbox will port over more Duke titles for digital download while fans wait to see what Duke Begins will be able to accomplish next year.

So here’s the question, has Duke Nukem Forever soured fans on Duke forever? Or will Duke Begins, if awesome, revive your faith in this aging American franchise?

Now here’s a video showing the long and storied history of Duke Nukem Forever.

Via 1UP