Originally Posted by Wall Street Journal

“Duke Nukem Forever,” a video game synonymous with never being released, is finally being released.

The first person shooter about a space marine with a penchant for off-color humor who battles aliens with increasingly destructive weapons, was to be the fourth installment in a series of games that garnered critical praise and generated controversy for its depiction of women. After 10 years in development, 3D Realms, the studio behind the game, announced it was shutting down in 2009.

The game is being finished by Gearbox Software and will be published by Take-Two Interactive, publisher of the “Grand Theft Auto” series. The game is being shown to consumers and the press for the first time at a video game convention today. Gearbox hopes to release the game next year.

Announced in 1997, “Duke Nukem Forever” went through numerous changes as developer 3D Realms tried to keep pace with new technology its competitors were introducing into their games. As Scott Miller, then owner and CEO of 3D Realms, puts it: “We were probably too much of a perfectionist about the game. When some other game had some great feature come out we wanted to match it.” In addition, the studio managed to produce a slate of other games, like 2006’s “Prey.” “We’d been distracted on other games like ‘Prey.’ It was a combination of those things. We were trying to build a game that was too great,” he says.

The storied game even spawned its own internet meme: The “Duke Nukem Forever” List. The list detailed things that have happened between when the game was announced and when the plug was pulled on it. Sample entries include: “Steve Jobs was still running NeXT when Duke Nukem Forever was announced.” And “In April of 1997, Google, eBay, and the term “weblog” didn’t exist.”

3D Realms eventually ran into financial difficulty and shut down in May of 2009 after laying off about 40 people. At the time Take-Two Interactive claimed to own the publishing rights to “Duke Nukem Forever,” which 3D Realms disputed.

Following the shutdown, the lawsuits began. The parties eventually settled their differences and have declined to discuss terms. As for who actually owns the intellectual property of “Duke Nukem Forever”–either 3D Realms or Take-Two Interactive—both declined to comment. However, Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software, says an announcement regarding the future of the IP would be made on Sunday at the company’s panel at the video game convention PAX 2010, which is being held in Seattle, Washington.

Pitchford actually worked on the “Duke Nukem 3D”, the precursor to “Duke Nukem Forever,” before leaving the company to start, along with others, Gearbox Software. Over the years Gearbox has made successful titles such as the “Brothers in Arms” series and the recent “Borderlands.”

According to Pitchford, Gearbox began finishing “Duke Nukem Forever” in late 2009. “Clearly the game hadn’t been finished at 3D Realms but a lot of content had been created,” he says. “The approach and investment and process at 3D Realms didn’t quite make it and it cracked at the end. With Gearbox Software we brought all those pieces together. It’s the game it was meant to be.”

That means that the game will be a sequel to Duke Nukem 3D and will have both single player and multiplayer. “Aliens come and say they’re going to be our friends and Duke knows this isn’t going to work out,” Pitchford says. “Duke once again is in the pivotal spot and its up to him to save the world.”

The game is currently expected to ship in 2011, although given its history, Pitchford is understandably reluctant to be more specific. “We’re in the polishing phase now. This is a game where we can not make a promise we can not fulfill,” he says. “We need to get past the shock and awe and then we can go to all the retailers and first parties and work out a launch plan.”