necroslut, on 28 October 2019 - 11:35 PM, said:
The whole concept was a bad idea. Duke was never about story, and a "prequel" makes no sense in that context. Duke's "story" doesn't matter.
Purely marketing. We know that 3DR had been talking with GBX prior to their 2009 closure about the production of Duke Begins. I could very easily see 2K/Take 2, or perhaps even 3DR themselves, feeling that Duke had been out of the spotlight for so long (the last real release for the series before that was Manhattan Project in 02) that the newer audience would be put off playing a new installment in a series they had never touched before. Then they look it up and "ew what's this? a SNES platformer? these games look like shit!" I'm not saying that's my perception but circa 2009 the retro fps revival was nowhere to be found, so how do we interest a new audience in the sequel to a game thats over 10 years old? Prequel. The soft reboot angle of the day. Same reason Doom 4 is just called DOOM. John Q Public sees the title 'Duke Begins' and are instantly reassured that not only will they need no prior knowledge to feel included, they are gaining an entryway into a larger ""fandom"".
Personally, I wholly agree with you. The correct course of action would have been to make another spinoff game ala Manhattan Project or Zero Hour. The name Duke Nukem should be a tag line the same way Schwarzenegger was in the 80s. Impart that unto the consumer base and Forever being a sequel to 3D would have been a non-issue. After the hype surrounding the 07 teaser, I don't think there should have been any fear of DNF under-performing anyways.. had it been finished and polished
before release.