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Fan-made Duke Nukem gets the go-ahead

Duke Nukem: Next-Gen free for all.

Dark blue icons of video game controllers on a light blue background
Image credit: Eurogamer

A fan made revision of 1996 PC shooter Duke Nukem 3D will be released after Duke Nukem license holder Gearbox Software gave the project approval.

Duke Nukem: Next-Gen, as it's called, is built upon Gears of War developer Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3.

The game will include a three episode single-player campaign and a full-fledged multiplayer component, and will be released free to all, according to a post on the official Gearbox forum.

"I contacted George Broussard and Scott Miller [of original Duke Nukem creator 3D Realms], to start a conversation about the project," project lead and level designer Frederik "Fresch" Schreiber explained.

"The shots managed to convince Scott Miller to a certain degree, but the project was only doable if Take-Two would approve it.

"Thinking that Gearbox might have a better relationship to Take-Two than 3D Realms, I contacted AdamF, who passed me through to PJ Putnam, vice president and general counsel of Gearbox Software.

"Luckily Gearbox was interested in supporting the project, which resulted in a personal non-commercial license to Duke Nukem." Boom.

DNNG will be released "when it's done", but fans will be able to play the "first official milestone release" – a multiplayer Duke match test - ahead of completion. Screens are below.

Gearbox is of course hard at work finishing up work on Duke Nukem Forever, set for release on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 next year.