Pitchford: Here's Why Duke is Delayed Again

Randy Pitchford said Duke's delay stems from inaccurate predictions about the amount of time it takes to finish certain tasks within the game.

Thursday brought the sad (yet expected) news that Duke Nukem Forever would be delayed once again. However, instead of an additional thirty month wait (or a thirty year wait, depending on how you view time), gamers would only have to suffer just over an additional month. There was no real explanation, only that Duke would arrive not on May 3, but on June 14, 2011, instead.

At first, many considered the news as a hoax, a possible April Fool's joke played by Gearbox Software-- based on the game's historical development cycle-- which would be exposed on April 1, 2011. But according to numerous Twitter posts by Gearbox bossman Randy Pitchford, the delay is indeed not a joke on players.

"[The] delay was NOT planned," he admitted after floods of disappointment came rushing in through the forums and Twitter. "[The delay is] very difficult and expensive for us, but the right thing for fans. I know. It sucks and I'm sorry. There were some things that we just didn't want to cut corners on. We've already done everything we can. Nothing is getting cut because of the delay. Some things are getting better, though."

Pitchford said the alternative would've been worse for everyone. "We're doing the right thing," he said. "Lots of natural uncertainty turned out to make our earlier prediction [about task completion and difficulty] not accurate. Best to face it ASAP rather than too late. We've got about 50 – 60 certification and "A" bugs left in the database, which is about right for where we are."

Pitchford even went so far as to admitting that the delay was not due to censoring Capture the Babe. "It'll ship," he said after taking full responsibility for the game's brief delay. "We'll announce the demo date for the First Access Club Members as soon as we can. Shouldn't be long now."

Later he said that gamers should expect to hear more news about the demo before May. He also admitted there will be no mod tools shipping with the game. "We love the idea of that and have done that in the past," he said. "We’ll see."