Duke Nukem Forever has come and gone, to mixed reception and success, and IP owner Gearbox are starting to tease the future of the franchise, in the form of a completely original, internally-developed title. When we’ll hear more, who knows.

Not long after re-announcing DNF last fall, it was revealed that the fan project Duke Nukem: Next Gen was given the greenlight by Gearbox, and could be finished and released as a non-commercial project. It went on to become Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded, as was intended to be a complete modern day remake of the original Duke, using Unreal Engine 3. Quite a daunting task.

In the months since, start-up developers Interceptor Entertainment have gone relatively quiet, dropping just a scant few pieces of art here and there, and promising a multiplayer beta. Back in August, the team said they were plugging away, and what had been shown to Gearbox had been “well received”. Good news, for an unofficial project which will not net any profit.

Things have slowed to a crawl for some reason, though, and Interceptor now writes that DN3D:R is stalled. For a while.

“After careful consideration of the progress and direction of the project, Interceptor Entertainment has decided to finish Duke Nukem: Reloaded at a future date that is yet to be determined,” said a blog post this week.

“Interceptor Entertainment still has the good will and non commercial license provided to us to use the Duke Nukem brand for our creative ambitions. We hope to resume that work again when the time is right. In the interim, please know that the praise and support we received for our efforts has been both overwhelming and appreciated. Interceptor Entertainment looks forward to revisiting the DNR project in the future, along with several other new, creative pursuits.”

Other than that, not a word on exactly what happened. It doesn’t sound like there was/is any bad blood with Gearbox. Perhaps Interceptor simply ran into development hiccups that, for the time being, seemed too heavy to tackle?

Suddenly visions of the long, long-awaited fan-made Half-Life remake, Black Mesa Source, return. Hopefully this project fares better in the end, and will actually release before people stop caring about it.


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