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Duke Nukem Forever May Have Cost George Broussard $20-30 Million

Posted October 7, 2010 by M.H. Williams

Gearbox head Randy Pitchford says that former 3D Realms head George Broussard burned through $20 – 30 million of his own personal funds on the development of Duke Nukem Forever. CVG reports that Pitchford relayed the story while speaking to press in London this morning.

"There was the bad news in May 2009. You all saw the stories; 3D Realms was shutting down, Duke was dead. That sucked. It was tough being in Dallas, many of my friends lost their jobs,” said Pitchford. "I spoke to George Broussard and he said, 'Randy, this is the worst day of my life' but you could hear in his voice there was more. This was 12 years of his life... try and imagine what you've achieved in 12 years, Gearbox has made 15 games in that time." 

"George Broussard is not a poor man but I would estimate that he lost 20 to 30 million dollars of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever - I don't care who you are, that's a hell of a lot of money,” he continued. “He was committed to Duke to the point of insanity... and now Duke was dead. He decided he would rather have it burn that have a bad version of the game come out."

Broussard is involved in the Gearbox version of Duke Nukem Forever, but in what capacity remains unknown. The game is planned for a 2011 release.

M.H. Williams has been writing in some form or another for ten years and has been a hardcore gamer since the NES first graced American shores.  You can catch him on Twitter as @AutomaticZen, Google+ as himself, or on his personal Facebook page.