A trailer for a canceled game of Duke Nukem 2008 has appeared on the Internet. Animation studio Janimation was hired by Gearbox at that time to create a cinematic for the game before Gearbox removed the title, apparently due to legal issues surrounding the franchise.
Gregor Punchatz, an animator best known for his work on monster models for Doom, spearheaded the making of the trailer in 2008. The trailer was released recently on Punchatz YouTube channel Y shows a brief look at what Duke Nukem Begins could have been: an alleged origin story for the protagonist of the series.
The Duke Nukem Begins mockup trailer, unlike other entries in the Duke Nukem franchise, show the game as a third person shooter game with four player co-op mode. According to the trailer, the game would have sought to bring back a range of iconic Duke weapons, including his signature pistol and the freezing beam, while showing Duke slaying enemies with his own arms.
In other news, MRT recently reported that the Swedish video game holding company Embracer Group announced that it will acquire 8 more studios to its “collection”. The acquisition will mean that the group will own the developers of Duke Nukem Forever, 3D Realms, as well as Gearbox Studios, which they acquired in February. With both companies now under Embracer, there may be a few hopes for this Duke Nukem idea to become a reality.
