Duke Nukem Begins
During the years of development of Duke Nukem Forever, the Gearbox team worked in parallel on a prequel for the series, but it never saw the light of day. In 2008, a trailer was produced for the project, which was supposed to give a foretaste of the history of the famous video game character. Parts of the video were published on YouTube two years ago. Director Gregor Punchatz has now shared the full-length original for Duke Nukem fans on his YouTube channel.Recommended editorial content Here you can find external content from [PLATFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations are only displayed if you confirm this by clicking on "Load all external content": Load all external content I agree that external content can be displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy . External content More on this in our data protection declaration. "We [Janimation] were hired by Gearbox to [...] create an animated version of the game, what Duke Nukem Begins would look like. I led this project and was responsible for character development, including design and modeling for Duke. We went out of our way to produce the best cinematic in Janimation's history. Unfortunately, we learned afterwards that the game had been discontinued due to legal issues. [...] Because it's still something I'm incredibly proud of - I released it 13 years after it was made. The entire team that worked with me just deserves to be seen by the public. " - writes Gregor Punchatz in the description on YouTube.
If you take a look at the trailer, Duke Nukem Begins should have been a third-person shooter. A co-op mode for up to four players was apparently included in the project. Just last week, the Embracer Group (as part of the wave of takeovers of eight other studios) also took over the Duke Nukem makers of 3D Realms.
Trailer For Canceled Duke Nukem Begins Game Surfaces Online
Footage for a canceled Duke Nukem game dating back to 2008 has appeared online. Back in the late 2000s, Borderlands developer Gearbox was looking to create a game that would have been an origin story for Duke Nukem, hiring animation studio Janimation to create a mock-up trailer for Duke Nukem Begins.
The project was eventually canned due to legal issues around the Duke Nukem franchise back then, and Gearbox instead went on to finish Duke Nukem Forever after developer 3D Realms had spent more than a decade working on the game.
As for the prequel, the trailer uploaded by animator Gregor Punchatz shows off a game with third-person shooter gameplay, four-player co-op, and a very 2000s haircut for Duke. Duke's arsenal consists of his usual shotgun and trademark pistol, as well as a severed arm and his freeze ray weapon while he fights back against a horde of pig cops to the sound of Guerrilla Radio by Rage Against the Machine.
While Duke Nukem Forever was critically panned on release, developer 3D Realms did move on from the series after a court case ended with Gearbox declaring itself to be the lawful owner of the intellectual property. The studio was purchased in 2014 by SDN Invest, relocated to Denmark, and began producing games such as Bombshell and Ion Maiden, the latter of which had to change its name to Ion Fury after legendary metal band Iron Maiden's legal team caught wind of the project.
Last week, it was announced that 3D Realms had been acquired by Embracer Group alongside several other studios. Embracer also purchased Gearbox in February this year for $1.3 billion, essentially adding the Duke Nukem IP to its many game properties. As for Duke Nukem, his last notable appearance was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in 2018's Ready Player One film.
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