Gearbox Boss Details Duke Nukem Co-Creator's Obsession with Forever
By Mike Sharkey | Oct 8, 2010
Pitchford reports that Broussard dropped $20 to $30 million of his own money on the game.
We knew development of Duke Nukem Forever was a 13-year train wreck, but what we didn't know was how obsessed the franchise's co-creator, George Broussard, became with the foul-mouthed action hero. According to Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford, it's an obsession that cost Broussard $20 to $30 million of his own money.
Speaking to the UK press at an event in London yesterday (courtesy of CVG), Pitchford detailed how important it was to him personally to make sure Duke Nukem Forever saw the light of day. He recalled a conversation with his friend and former colleague, Broussard, on the day 3D Realms was shut down in 2009.
"I spoke to George Broussard and he said, 'Randy, this is the worst day of my life.' But you could hear in his voice there was more," Pitchford said. "This was 12 years of his life... try and imagine what you've achieved in 12 years, Gearbox has made 15 games in that time."
"George Broussard is not a poor man but I would estimate that he lost 20 to 30 million dollars of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever -- I don't care who you are, that's a hell of a lot of money. He was committed to Duke to the point of insanity... and now Duke was dead. He decided he would rather have it burn than have a bad version of the game come out."
Broussard is involved with DNF at Gearbox, though in what capacity is unclear. Publisher 2K has confirmed the game is complete and is now being polished for a 2011 release on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.
In a related story, Pitchford also told VG247 that Gearbox and 2K are working with videogame retailers in an effort to honor pre-orders taken for the game over the many years of its development.
"We've started to engage [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.
"I don't know what we can do yet, but something should be done for the people who pre-ordered."
I hope they manage to do something nice for those that preordered.
*stampede to play.com for the Balls of Steel-edition*