8) Duke Nukem Forever – 2011
Estimated cost: $30,000,000
What can be said about Duke Nukem Forever that hasn’t already been said about Guantanamo Bay? It’s a horrific blemish on the skin of humanistic society, and the President himself needs to see that its wiped from history. That is to say, it was a poor quality video game.
Duke Nukem, though! That guy’s the boss, to be sure. He deserves the title way more than Bruce Springsteen. He stamps on aliens’ faces and objectifies women while wearing a vest. He’s a modern hero. Right? Unfortunately, when you have a central character this deep, getting a game together good enough to house him is always going to be a lengthy process.
10 years, in fact. And probably just as many studios. George Broussard (boss of ill-fated 3D Realms) is said to have laid down $20,000,000 on the rights to the game alone. In the end it landed on Randy Pitchford’s desk, the man who later gave us the nauseating disaster Aliens: Colonial Marines – another game that wouldn’t look out of place on this very list.
Keep clinging to Borderlands, Randy!
