Duke Nukem Forever was first announced by 3D Realms as a sequel to cult classic Duke Nukem 3D in 1997. The much-anticipated game then went on a painfully protracted, 12-year-long development binge, swapping out engines, publishers and assets for more than a decade.

Despite having the longest development cycle in gaming history — and even winning the lifetime achievement award for vaporware — gamers held on to hope until the game was officially canned in May 2009.

But, even with the game officially dead, and with the developer firing most of its staff, Brothers in Arms and Borderlands developer Gearbox Software stepped in, bought the licensing rights and is now finishing off the game for a 2011 release.

At a press event held in London last week, where the game’s demo was announced, Gearbox President Randy Pitchford also had words for excited gamers holding ancient preorder receipts. One notorious photograph shows an aged, yellow GameStop reservation stub dated back to 2001.

“We’ve started to engage [with retailers], saying, ‘Hey, you’ve got customers who you made a promise to, and any bad feeling they have will reflect on us, so can we work together to do something for those people?’” Pitchford said.

Barring any more delays, Duke Nukem Forever will finally be out next year on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, a good 13 years after its original announcement. I wonder if it will be worth the wait …

See Also:

• Hands On: Duke Nukem Forever Lives Again at PAX
• Q&A: How Randy Pitchford Saved Duke Nukem Forever
• Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem

Authors: Mark Brown, Wired UK

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