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Gearbox seeks dev collaboration for next Duke Nukem

"I did not acquire the franchise merely so people could experience Duke Nukem Forever."

Gearbox Studios boss Randy Pitchford has said that he wants to work on a new Duke Nukem game, aided by an outside developer.

Speaking at the Develop 2015 conference today, attended by Eurogamer, Pitchford explained that Gearbox had worked on concepts for a follow-up to Duke Nukem Forever.

But getting the game made would likely require Gearbox to rope in extra development support from another studio, Pitchford said.

"I did not acquire the franchise merely so people could experience Duke Nukem Forever," he explained when asked if another Duke Nukem title would be made. "That was, sort of, the toll to pay to give Duke Nukem a chance at a future.

"So yes. In fact, we've done some concept development. The challenge is that Gearbox is very busy. A faster way would be if the correct developer would become interested and we'd work with them."

Forever received a decidedly mixed response when it was released in 2011, after more than a decade and a half in and out of development hell.

"I think that's it's a challenging problem," Pitchford continued, "but there's no doubt that, when it does happen, the entire industry will turn its head. Getting attention in this industry is one of the hardest things to do.

"That's probably one of the biggest problems Forever had - for 10 years it was promised as the greatest game that would ever be made. It was legendary in its vapourware status. So it had a particular pole of attention."

Gearbox collaborated with another developer for its critically-panned shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines, which was co-developed by TimeGate Studios. TimeGate was forced to file for bankruptcy and shut down shortly after.

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Additional reporting by Wesley Yin-Poole.