Duke Still Has Plenty of Fight Left in Him, Says Take-Two Boss

[Logan Westbrook]

Duke Still Has Plenty of Fight Left in Him, Says Take-Two Boss

Take-Two's CEO suggests that we could see Duke in other places than videogames, as long as it's the right project.

After waiting for such a long time for Duke Nukem Forever to come out, Take-Two isn't planning to give up on the franchise in a hurry. Although the game is receiving a thorough pounding from critics, who have taken issue with its dated design and boorish main character, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick says that the publisher plans to do more with Duke in the future.

Zelnick wouldn't say anything specific about possible future Duke Nukem projects, but said that they would come. He also suggested that Take-Two would be willing to see the character branch out into other mediums, provided it was the right project. "We don't want to ever be in the position of dumping something down just to make another buck," he said. "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."

Zelnick also dismissed criticism about Duke Nukem Forever's adult content, saying that he stood behind the media that his company published. He said this stance made it easy for people to be critical of the company, but said that if people had a problem with the game's content, then they shouldn't play it.

It's not hard to see why Take-Two wants to wring a little more life out of the franchise: it fronted a lot of money to get Duke Nukem Forever released, and it would undoubtedly get as much of that money back as possible. For better or worse, the Duke Nukem franchise has a lot of brand recognition, and a new Duke Nukem game, rather than an old one that just took a long time to come out, could potentially fare a little better with reviewers. Judging by a lot of reviewers comments though, Duke himself is going to need quite a lot of rehabilitation.

Source: Forbes [http://blogs.forbes.com/davidewalt/2011/06/20/take-two-ceo-strauss-zelnick-our-dna-is-gameplay-our-clothing-is-cinema/] via Industry Gamers [http://www.industrygamers.com/news/duke-nukem-ip-will-continue-says-take-two/]


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[Fasckira]

if people had a problem with the game's content, then they shouldn't play it.

I really dislike this growing trend amongst companies that they refuse to see any faults within their titles and instead blame the players.

I have taken the advice never the less - I played Duke Nukem, I found a hell of a lot of problems with its content and will now no longer play it.

If we see Duke in any future titles then lets hope its been suitably improved!

 

[TxMxRonin]

There's really no reason to not make a brand new Duke game. Gearbox (or is it Take-Two?) owns the franchise now, so why not?

EDIT: And honestly, I still want to play DNF. All my friends at work tell me it's actually good but I want to see for myself. But I'll wait till it comes down in price. I will NEVER buy a game at full price again.

EDIT #2: And hell, Gearbox is backing a fan made remake of Duke Nukem 3D.http://www.dukenukemreloaded.com/

 

[Adzma]

The problem is the people who don't like Duke the character weren't introduced to him in the 90s. DNF is far from perfect but if you're actually a fan of the franchise it's a fun experience. Not every game has to be an artistic masterpiece to be good.

There are certainly worse games than DNF.

 

[RA92]

I really dislike this growing trend amongst companies that they refuse to see any faults within their titles and instead blame the players.

And when the inevitable Duke Nukem sequel comes out, they're going to own up all their faults and say that they've improved upon them.

Also, does anyone know that 2K has been blacklisting sites that gave them negative reviews?

 

[Ch4llen]

Something tells me its only a matter of time before Duke Nukem The Movie will be in development

 

[Jordi]

I have always thought that Gearbox bought the rights to the franchise mostly to make other games. I see DNF as an investment in the sense that they basically had to finish it, and they did so ASAP so that they could get on with making the new Duke Nukem game(s) that they really want to make.

if people had a problem with the game's content, then they shouldn't play it.

I really dislike this growing trend amongst companies that they refuse to see any faults within their titles and instead blame the players.

I have taken the advice never the less - I played Duke Nukem, I found a hell of a lot of problems with its content and will now no longer play it.

If we see Duke in any future titles then lets hope its been suitably improved!

I think he's talking about the themes in the game, not the gameplay and other aspects. Basically, if you have a problem with the sex, violence, vile language, childishness, and misogyny, you should not have bought the game. It was very clear about the fact that those things would be in it, and they are not flaws, they were put there by design.

I have nothing against criticism, but it is a little pointless to criticize the parts of a product that were intentionally put in there and are working exactly as advertised.

 

[Valagetti]

Well, we know theres gonna be a sequel, the question is, are they going to learn from their past mistakes?

 

[Hamish Durie]

well it wasn't the worst game in the world but it wasn't going to be winning any prizes and the gameplay was good and had a retro charm to it.
I think we let our expectations get a little high with this game and thats one of the reasons it wasn't that good

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

I really dislike this growing trend amongst companies that they refuse to see any faults within their titles and instead blame the players.

And when the inevitable Duke Nukem sequel comes out, they're going to own up all their faults and say that they've improved upon them.

Also, does anyone know that 2K has been blacklisting sites that gave them negative reviews?

This was already handled by the Escapist and Gearbox revealed the PR dude that had an emotional breakdown was fired.

 

[9thRequiem]

Whether you liked it or not, everyone has to agree that after the last game's reception, they're going to need some serious justification to make a new one. The CEO might think it's a good idea, but I'm not so sure the shareholders would be ecstatic that their potential investment was pissed away the same way twice.

 

[Two Angels]

I think a brand new game which hasn't had 12 odd years development and a few thousand people working on it could be good. DNF is not as bad as people make out but neither is it a game that will stand the test of time, hell I doubt I'll play it again once I've completed it.

 

[WolfLordAndy]

I hope they do release another Duke Nukem game, but without having to deal with all the previous game problems they inherrited, I think they could make a solid game based off of the property but using there own gameplay mechanics. They need to remember what made Duke great, not what made other games great and throwing them in the melting pot.

Give us an arsenal of weapons to carry once more, and up the speed of movement abit, DNF just felt to slow much of the time. I enjoyed the turret section, the racing section wasn't too bad. ALl the minigames were actually quite amusing, lifting weights, playing pinball, remote controlled car, whackamole, etc.

if people had a problem with the game's content, then they shouldn't play it.

I really dislike this growing trend amongst companies that they refuse to see any faults within their titles and instead blame the players.

I think he more means the content rather then the gameplay. That is what most of the non-gaming media concentraited on, about how abhorrent the game and its content is, despite the fact its 18 rated.

 

[kajinking]

I was hoping for this, Gearbox makes good games and in order to use the DN series name they had to get Forever out the door. With it out I believe they'll start making a new game which if bulletstorm is any indication may end up being pretty damn good.

 

[RA92]

The problem is the people who don't like Duke the character weren't introduced to him in the 90s.

No, the problem is that the devs got the game ass backwards. They were infatuated with the character too much and banked completely on that aspect, forgetting the core gameplay value of Duke Nukem 3D. They should have given Gearbox at least another year to fine-tune the gameplay itself. Look at the previews for Serious Sam 3: BFE - that's how they should have handled it, instead of making it a senile modern shooter.

I mean honestly - should you save up for a mediocre game purely out of nostalgia, or another game where they throw more than 40 headless kamikazes and cyclopes at you at once in a destructible environment?

 

[Fasckira]

I think he's talking about the themes in the game, not the gameplay and other aspects.

I think he more means the content rather then the gameplay. That is what most of the non-gaming media concentraited on, about how abhorrent the game and its content is, despite the fact its 18 rated.

Ahhh ok, fair enough - I misunderstood the original point.

The problem is the people who don't like Duke the character weren't introduced to him in the 90s.

No, the problem is that the devs got the game ass backwards. They were infatuated with the character too much and banked completely on that aspect, forgetting the core gameplay value of Duke Nukem 3D. They should have given Gearbox at least another year to fine-tune the gameplay itself. Look at the previews for Serious Sam 3: BFE - that's how they should have handled it, instead of making it a senile modern shooter.

I mean honestly - should you save up for a mediocre game purely out of nostalgia, or another game where they throw more than 40 headless kamikazes and cyclopes at you at once in a destructible environment?

This is exactly how I feel about the new Duke. One of my friends argued saying that it had lots of funny moments... thats great, but a few funny moments spaced out over a very dull 90's style FPS does not make a great AAA title. Another friend said that my expectations were too high - yes, yes they would be for a sequel to what was an awesome game in my childhood and for a game that has had such a huge advertising campaign!

 

[Treblaine]

Well I am of the firm belief that it is not impossible to make a good Duke Nukem game.

They just have to do it more like an Austin Powers movie.

As Jim Sterling said rightly "Duke Nukem thinks he is cool when he is not", but I'd argue in a similar way that Austin Powers "thought he was cool when he wasn't" can itself be cool in the sense of poetic-irony.

Ultimately Duke needs to be an endearing character to the audience, even if he pisses off everyone he meets.

"Zelnick also dismissed criticism about Duke Nukem Forever's adult content"

Look, I'm not saying you can't make jokes about rape, but you are walking a VEEEEERY thin line between risqué and outright creepy. I don't think Duke played them right, at least not for a mainstream audience who won't be ashamed of laughing at the jokes.

It's like making jokes about any emotional tragedy that affects thousands of people, you cannot belittle the victims. Like 9/11 jokes, you can make them just don't belittle or trivialise the victims:

....

on second thoughts I won't give an example of a "tasteful" 9/11 joke. It's still probably too raw and I don't want to get suspended.

Just... it can be done. DNF just did it wrong.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Considering that Gearbox got the developpement mess from more a decade of problems and they decided let it be instead of making changes, I really want to see Gearbox's 100% creation process on a the next Duke Nukem.

 

[OutforEC]

I'm not interested whatsoever in playing DNF , but I still wish the best for the devs in their future endeavors. Even though they released what by most accounts is an absolutely horrible game, at least they were able to release it. Let's just hope the next one makes up for it.

Also, they seem like ok guys with the whole swag pack for the decade-old pre-order.