Unsurprisingly, Duke Nukem Forever is a commercial success in spite of being a creative dog. Even less surprisingly, Take-Two is going to capitalize on that by giving the world more Duke. He is more certainly back.
“Part of it is the economic opportunities that interact with entertainment are so huge,” said CEO Strauss Zelnick. “Part of it is that we are very creative folks in control. Part of it is we don’t want to ever be in the position of dumping something down just to make another buck.
“If we can take some of our intellectual property and bring it to another medium in an extraordinary high quality way, that delights consumers and represents an interesting commercial opportunity for us, we will. We have certainly considered doing that with BioShock and with other title. So far we haven’t brought anything to market, but stay tuned.”
Despite what some might think, I’m actually okay with this. I want to see Duke get another game — this time built from the ground up, with more attempts at humor than half-hearted movie quotes. It most certainly can be done and I sincerely hope it happens.
Of course, whether a new Duke game can survive without the fourteen-year hype of Forever is another matter entirely. Who knows how many bought DNF and felt thoroughly burned by the final product?
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick: Our DNA Is Gameplay, Our Clothing Is Cinema [Forbes]