Why The Latest Duke Nukem Forever Delay Is Not A Big Deal

Duke Nukem Forever, announced way back in April 1997, looked like it would never be released and was delegated to more than an industry joke. The final nail in the coffin seemed to come from the closing of original developer 3D Realms back in 2009.

It seemed that Duke Nukem truly was Forever when last September at the Penny Arcade Expo, Randy Pitchford from Gearbox Software announced to the world that they would be finishing development on the long gestating title for an eventual release in 2011.

Early in 2011 the release date for DNF was set at May 3rd/2011. After several playable demos, videos and screenshots it seemed that Gearbox was on track to finally release DNF. Today it was announced that despite their best efforts to meet the release date of early May, the team at Gearbox needed more time to polish the title and pushed the release date to June of 2011:

While it is certainly a blow to the many people waiting to get their hands on the painfully long delayed title, the delay is not that large. The fear that many have at this point is that this will signal a series of delays, missed release dates and a repeat of 3D Realms history.

Given that the title has been in development for 14 years, one month to finally get the game is not that long. Unlike 3D Realms, who kept quiet during most of the games development, Pitchford and Gearbox have taken every opportunity to showcase the game to the press in the form of demos, as well as videos and screens to the public. If this gives the team a little bit more time to make the game even a little bit better, as long as it does not lead to a series of delays, it is ultimately better for both the game and the people who will eventually play it.

DNF publisher 2K Games is a subsidiary of Take Two Interactive, the parent company of GTA/Red Dead Redemption developer Rockstar games. Rockstar is set to publish their period detective game LA Noire two weeks after DNF’s initial release date on May 17^th. LA Noire has been gathering a lot of hype as of late and is being positioned as this year’s RDR, being released in the exact same time frame as the hit western. Even though the main reason cited for the delay in DNF is development, there has to be some publishing pressure from Take Two as well to have one big game for May and then another in June.

There’s no getting around the fact that the delay of DNF for those anticipating it (like those how pre-ordered the Balls of Steel edition for their Birthday, May 18th if your wondering) is disappointing. As long as this delay does not lead to several more, a month out of 14 years is not that much more. As Shigeru Miyamoto says, “a bad game is bad forever, but a delayed game is eventually good”. Just try to stick to a schedule, Randy, okay?

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