Disclaimer: Rumor Killers is a speculative opinion piece and is by no means intended to disclose as fact whether a rumor is true or false - even though the Rumor Killers team are usually right (usually...)

Duke Nukem to Rise Again?

Otherwise known as the living dead of video game rumors, it looks like everyone’s favorite kicker of alien ass, one Duke Nukem, is back on the scene - just when you thought it really was all over. New speculation has emerged regarding yet another possible Duke Nukem title. Duke’s official Facebook page (groan - Ed.) has been updated with a screenshot and a caption stating ’D-Day’. The screenshot doesn’t look aged in any way, which suggests it’s is a recent publicity shot, but what of?

There’s no denying the Duke’s tumultuous history in recent years. The latest title, Duke Nukem Forever, was originally announced in 1997 with the aim of a release by mid-1998. By 1998 there was no sign of it, with a change of game engines to Unreal and then an announcement of its release in 1999. Over the next 10 years many similar changes were announced, typically related to the game engine and promises of new release dates. By 2009 there was still no sign of it and the game was terminated by developers 3D Realms when the firm closed down due to lack of funding. However it wasn’t strictly all over for Duke Nukem Forever, Take-Two still owned the publishing rights to the title (after much legal wrangling)... they just didn’t want to fund the development. This gave some small hope to fans that maybe one day Duke Nukem Forever would finally see the light of day, assuming someone was willing to provide funding.

Amongst all the chaos of rumors and speculation, legal documents appeared stating that Take-Two was suing 3D Realms for the source code of Duke Nukem Forever. This surely suggests that Take-Two are actually interested in releasing Forever at some point. There was even evidence of significant game footage suggesting that maybe it was closer to release than originally thought. Finally, there were even rumors that another Duke Nukem game, Duke Nukem Begins, was in development, this time by Gearbox Software, but that this had been halted too by Take-Two. That’s not forgetting the rumor of Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project coming to Xbox Live soon.

This D-Day screenshot could be quite a lot of things. It could just be another example of what Forever would have looked like, an example of the title developed by Gearbox Software, or even just a PR stunt to make people take notice of the big man again. Simply put, as is often the way with Duke, it’s all a bit of a mess with no certainty in sight. We know that Take-Two own the publishing rights to the series, but is there a great need for Duke anymore? With funding presumably getting harder to acquire and the franchise becoming distinctly ancient now compared to more recent IPs like Halo and Killzone, is there even room for him? I’m not so sure. Duke Nukem was a character of his time, the early 1990s when gaming was full of misogyny and wafer-thin plotlines. Now that the industry has become so much more mainstream, there’s a lot more competition when it comes to first-person shooters. Duke Nukem might be able to compete, but it’s a very risky venture and something that I suspect might not be profitable enough after 12 years of development.

As it currently stands there simply isn’t enough concrete proof to suggest that this is anything more than the usual cycle of rumor mongering for the franchise. The screenshot could still just be a concept piece or part of a very small segment of a game. So don’t expect to see the Duke any time soon, if at all.

Jen’s Verdict: False