Duke Nukem Forever

Welcome tot the Games that Never Were blog!
Here you'll find data about the games that were in development but were never released.
How else can i start with if not with Duke Nukem Forever - the longest in production game ever!



The original Duke Nukem PC game was released in 1991 and quickly became a popular title with its comic book pulp and innovative (at the time) game play. Two sequels were released in 1993 and 1996, establishing the Duke as a successful PC game franchise.

The fourth installment, Duke Nukem Forever (DNF), was intended to be the piece de resistance of the series, but instead the game has become notorious for its delays and internal struggles. Work began on DNF in 1997 on the Quake game engine, but later that year developer 3D Realms moved to the Quake II engine. Apparently, engine switches and upgrades would become a disturbing pattern for 3D Realms. After some preliminary screenshots and trailer footage was released in 1998, 3D dumped the Quake engine altogether and switched to the Unreal Engine, which caused some serious technical issues. Then, 3D upgraded to Unreal Engine 1.5, which led to more headaches.

Things got worse after 3D indicated DNF would arrive before the holiday season of 2000. Then, the publishing rights were moved from Infogrames to Gather of Developers, a Take-Two Interactive subsidiary, and the release date was moved to 2001. By 2003, many fans were wondering if the game would ever arrive. So did Take-Two and basically everyone in the video game industry. And in 2004, 3D announced that it replaced the game's Karma physics engine with a new physics engine from Swedish developer Meqon Research (later acquired by Ageia). At this point, it was widely assumed that 3D was creating DNF from scratch and that all content and material previously completed (if any was actually completed) had been dumped.

The numerous delays, postponements and false promises have left many gamers frustrated with 3D, which has been accused of spending more time on clearing its forum of all DNF complaints and criticism and trying to erase any traces of previously announced release dates for the game. Of course, 3D still has DNF listed on their Website with the feel-good statement "Coming when it's done."