Duke Nukem Forever release date

This is something we've been itching to write for years: Duke Nukem Forever has a rock-solid release date.

The Gearbox-adopted shooter will launch worldwide on 6th May.

The US plays slightly earlier from 3rd May.

Confirmation comes from Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford and 2K president Cristoph Hartmann, who both outed the date to Game Informer magazine.

Boy has Duke Nukem Forever taken its time: Eurogamer once talked of DNF as the most anticipated game of 2000. By 2006, its extended development was a pantomime gag among the industry, causing even developer 3D Realms to joke that Duke Nukem Forever would be released "when pigs fly".

During the next few years, fleeting videos and sporadic screenshots offered glimmers of hope. But it wasn't until September 2010, and the announcement of Borderlands dev Gearbox as the heroic Duke Nukem Forever rescuer, that we dared believe.

Eurogamer played Duke Nukem Forever shortly after that announcement. What did we think? "This game isn't trying to rewrite the first-person shooter rulebook. Instead, it's hearkening back to a simpler time, when story was just an excuse for guns, girls and gags."

What took 3D Realms more than a decade to complete a game? "I wish there was an easy or dramatic answer for what took so long but there just isn't," said original designer George Broussard in November.

"It was just never ready. We had lots of development issues along the way. It wasn't a quest for perfection as some silly article in Wired implied last year."

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