At the Gearbox panel at PAX today they
announced that Gearbox now owns the Duke Nukem IP outright meaning that 3D Realms no longer has any claim to the property. This should hopefully clear up any questions about the Duke franchise after the release of
Duke Nukem Forever next year.
This is really a win-win for everyone as it means Gearbox gets another solid IP to add to it's stable of games, gamers will get a steady stream of Duke games, and 2K Games wins now that the franchise is in the hands of a developer that can actually deliver code.
I'm still wary that the game is going to be any good and if Duke represents
anything but nostalgia anymore. Of course Gearbox has a great track record (Borderlands was fantastic) but it's hard to set expectations for a game that's been in development for close to 13 years.
