Despite Everything, Duke Nukem Forever Was Profitable

We probably won't ever know the full story about the financials, but according to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, Duke Nukem Forever will be a profitable release for the company.

How profitable, however, is something we don't know.

The CEO revealed this interesting tidbit on yesterday's call with investors and analysts, where Take-Two announced a loss for the quarter, despite shipping more than four million copies of L.A. Noire.

Duke Nukem Forever's ending suggested the so-called king would return again, but who knows how long it'll be before Gearbox Software shows off Duke's inevitable reboot.

Gearbox certainly has its hands full at the moment, having just announced Borderlands 2, polishing up the oft-delayed Aliens: Colonial Marines for a release next spring and taking the Brothers in Arms series in a brand-new direction with the Borderlands-inspired Brothers in Arms: Furious 4.

Always Bet on Duke 

Good for them!

Got milk?

What has the world come to?

BUT AT WHAT COST?

Glad to hear it, i think Duke could be a good game if it wasn't just stitched together levels from however many years it was in development. I reboot could be good.

BUT AT WHAT COST?

Of course it was profitable. It didn't matter how terrible it was, there were enough people who were going to buy it just because of the legacy of the games development let alone the casual walmart shoppers that don't know any better.

I have a hard time believing they account for the salary of every person who worked on this over the past 12+ years when measuring their gains.

Good. Gearbox took a huge risk and I'd hate to have seen them lose money on anything. Remember this money goes to Borderlands 2!!!!!

BUT AT WHAT COST?

Hail to the King baby!

The collectors edition is only $69.99 now. Even though the game is terrible, that box comes with some cool stuff.

Hopefully the reboot can redeem this stale franchise.

Not surprised, all the talk about the amount of work they put into DNF had to be vastly over exaggerated. Bought it on the cheap, spend very few resources, and increase your profit margin. Honestly not a bad idea at all, that game was a turd that wasn't going to be turned around.

Are we still talking about Duke?
 
Also how about a little clarification, is it just a profit for Zenimax after just buying the license and the assets wholesale? 
 
Or did it come close to the dollar amounts George Broussard squandered and pissed away? Those are the numbers I want to see.

BUT AT WHAT COST?

I wonder how many copies of L.A. Noire have actually been sold. Every shop I go into has way too many copies sitting around.

Anyways, who thinks that Duke Nukem will be turned into a "Brah" character? He is the sort of chauvinistic jock of yesteryear, and that translates to the brahs of today. Dear god please don't be this silly Gearbox, Duke has more intelligence than the brahs of today. He needs to have a high level of suave and arrogance, but still be a complete meat head. Most brahs are just meatheads with low level suave and replace arrogance with ignorance.

hahahahahaha I mean so many people got it for the sole purpose of seeing *how* bad it was

@scriptkittie said:

hahahahahaha I mean so many people got it for the sole purpose of seeing *how* bad it was

Pretty much this. And it wasn't even bad enough to be funny. I just got bored. Hell even Duke sounded bored.

When all of their others games ship, I'm curious to see what Gearbox does with Duke, now that they can build him from the ground up.

$4 of profit from Duke Nukem Forever, when matched up to development costs.

I can't imagine Duke Nukem being profitable if you take into account all it's years of development. Good for Gearbox though, getting that money so they can keep making better games, like Borderlands.

@Bucketdeth said:

Hail to the King baby!

@ADarkMatter said:

EDIT: Was Shadows of the Damned "profitable"? I mean Duke was just a bad joke and should have stayed like that, let the guy die already, and there are a bunch of better games out there that just won't sell as much as Duke Nukem Forever did; that's bad for the industry IMO.

After selling only 24k, how could it possibly be profitable? And how does a bad game making a profit hurt the industry? It gives devs/pubs more money to make better games. How is that a bad thing?

@SlashseveN303 said:

I can't imagine Duke Nukem being profitable if you take into account all it's years of development. Good for Gearbox though, getting that money so they can keep making better games, like Borderlands.

Wildly unprofitable if you consider the 10+ years of lost opportunity costs.

Fuck everyone who bought this game. Now you have no room to complain about the avalanche of shitty clone games that will come out. Do any of you realize the companies largely make games based around what you buy.

@unholyone123 said:

Fuck everyone who bought this game. Now you have no room to complain about the avalanche of shitty clone games that will come out. Do any of you realize the companies largely make games based around what you buy.

I bought it and make no apologies, I really enjoyed it. The PC Gamer review matches my own thoughts well, it's flawed but still really fun. I know the PC version was better in many respects, which might have something to do with it.

Ofcourse it did! all they had to do was stable together the limbs and organs and sell it!

Ugh.  Fuck you, Duke.  Fuck you.

This......this just makes me sad.

:(

Sweet! Glad my Balls of Steel purchase was able to help.

I honestly wish it had tanked just so that I wouldn't have to deal with that character again. I mean it was great in the 90's but man not only is the character stuck in the past but so is the gameplay, can anyone actually try to imagine a duke game with a modern control scheme? Would you like to play a Duke Nukem game that has a cover mechanic and regenerating health? Active reload? QTE? No first person platforming? Gearbox is going to do it either way because they have been getting rather cocky with their games ever since borderlands was a big hit.

sad face.

@ADarkMatter said:

EDIT: Was Shadows of the Damned "profitable"? I mean Duke was just a bad joke and should have stayed like that, let the guy die already, and there are a bunch of better games out there that just won't sell as much as Duke Nukem Forever did; that's bad for the industry IMO.

After selling only 24k, how could it possibly be profitable? And how does a bad game making a profit hurt the industry? It gives devs/pubs more money to make better games. How is that a bad thing?

was Take Two actively funding the game during the entire development or was it mostly 3D Realms/George Broussard paying for it? I can't imagine this game actually made enough money to even cover 15 years worth of salary, let alone licensing multiple engines and everything else that goes into making a game. 
 
Being profitable for Take Two doesn't necessarily mean it made more money than what went into it.

I like the cover art.

It just goes to show that no matter what the haters say.........
 
Always bet on Duke.

Duke made money and Bulletstorm didn't. No justice in the world.

@Rawrnosaurous: Do you not think that Duke has a place in todays gaming world? I think they need to make another Duke game and have it ship on time to really find out.

Mine's still in it's wrap. Maybe if I return it justice will prevail....

Fucking depressing.

On the other hand, I'm sure most of us only bought it to have it on the shelf. I own a copy, but only so I can own a copy. I have no intention of ever *EVER* playing it. I don't hate myself that much.

hahahahahaha I mean so many people got it for the sole purpose of seeing *how* bad it was

Time is money.

I doubt Duke made a profit on its entire development cost. My guess is that is made a profit based on the price that Gearbox acquired it for, the money that 2K had put into 3D Realms and the last year of development costs for Gearbox. I can't see it paying for the 14 years of development that 3D Realms funded themselves from sources such as the old Duke games, Prey and the finder's fee they got for Max Payne.