"We were on the outside like everyone else," Pitchford said. "We went through the full range of emotions like everyone else, from 'We want a sequel!' to 'Holy crap, that trailer's awesome, when are we going to get it?' to 'What the **** is wrong with you guys?' to 'Oh wow that screenshot kicks ***, maybe it's real this time,' and then, like 'Is this a joke now?' and 'Okay, Wired gave it the Vaporware of The Year award now for the fifth time.'
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In the spring of 2009, things with Duke Nukem Forver were as bad as they've ever been. It was crisis time. In need of help or advice, 3D Realms co-owner George Broussard had lunch with Pitchford and the two discussed strategies for getting the game made. Broussard told Pitchford that things were getting tougher with Duke Nukem Forever. The game, a dozen years in the making and by this time the butt of so many jokes, still wasn't done and publisher Take Two Interactive was losing patience. Broussard would later contend that his studio spent $20 million making Duke Nukem Forever, but to finish, they needed more money from Take Two, and Take Two was tired of waiting, tired of paying their part.
"I thought he had six months," Pitchford said. Broussard had one week. A week after that lunch, 3D Realms laid off most of its staff and, a few days later, Take Two sued the studio, complaining that it failed to deliver on the publisher's $12 million investment.
"It felt like the dream was dead," Pitchford remembered
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One of the co-creators of the well-known Duke Nukem character, Allen Blum, was among the 3D Realms developers fired in May of 2009. He was a veteran. "He couldn't let it go," Pitchford said. "I wouldn't either. He decided to keep it going." So, post 3D Realms, Duke Nukem Forever development continued in the apartments of some of the laid off staff. It became, essentially, a garage game. "I got wind of it," Pitchford said. "I came around and checked things out."
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"The short story of it is: Because of my history with Duke, because of my relationship with Scott and George, because of the trust and respect that Gearbox and Take Two were able to build through our work together with Borderlands, and through the capabilities that I have built with my team to be able to ship games on these platforms — because of all of these things, I was in a spot that, if I took a bet and got in there and put myself in the line of fire in the middle of this thing, I knew that I could bring all these pieces together and that I could save Duke.
"I just knew it was going to work. I took the risk. I bet on Duke."
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