Is Duke Nukem Forever still in the works?

Duke Nukem Forever, the forever-in-development shooter originally from 3D Realms, fell victim to the infinite perfectionism of its creative director, George Broussard. (Wired has an excellent article on the whole sordid saga.) Broussard wouldn’t stop upgrading the game to new 3D engines for years upon years, making it impossible for the game to be finished. After twelve years of perpetual work-upgrade-work-upgrade cycles, 3D Realms lost its funding, and the publishing rights for the game were lost to Take 2 Interactive in a bitter legal battle.

Now, Kotaku is reporting that a popular game production house is taking over where 3D Realms left off, and might actually get the darn thing done and onto store shelves.

Gearbox Software, the studio behind cult hit Borderlands, is rumored to be working on Duke Nukem Forever for Take 2. This is good news for gaming fans, as Gearbox has a history of actually being able to finish the games they work on.

Kotaku says that a playable demo for the game might even be released by the end of this year. And Gearbox president Randy Pitchford told Kotaku that a “clarification” (aka, announcement) about this situation “might” be coming to PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle scheduled for early September.

After all these years, do you still have hope that Duke Nukem Forever might reach the light of day? Will you play it if it does?