Duke Nukem Forever Once Scheduled to Go Gold on April Fools' Day (No Joke)

Had everything gone according to plan, 3D Realms' long-coming (and now legally-troubled) shooter Duke Nukem Forever was meant to have gone gold--meaning it would have been complete and off to manufacturing--on April Fools' Day 2010.

"By the 3DR/TTWO development schedule, April 1st, 2010 was supposed to be the day Duke Nukem Forever went gold," Shacknews alum and former DNF producer Jason Bergman revealed via Twitter. "Totally intentional. It was going to be hilarious."

"Not an April Fool's gag," he affirmed in our comments. Bergman, a trustworthy fellow, served as producer on the game while working at Take-Two subsidiary 2K Games.

But as hardcore fans are quite aware, things didn't go according to plan. Developer 3D Realms laid off its internal development staff in May 2009, leading to a messy legal feud with publisher Take-Two over the game's incomplete state. Since then, 3D Realms has pledged that development on DNF is continuing somewhere, as well as teased that "there are numerous other Duke games in various stages of development."