Farewell to the king, baby. At least for now.
Earlier this morning, Polish digital distribution service Good Old Games somberly announced that it will be removing Duke Nukem 1 + 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Balls of Steel, and Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project from its online store on December 31st, 2015. The reason? The rights to the Duke series are owned by Gearbox Software, who fully acquired the Duke license last year after nearly decade of legal hot potato.
Good Old Games plans for the removal to be temporary. They’re currently “in talks with the new rightsholders [Gearbox] to bring [the Duke games] back as swiftly as possible.” Gearbox’s 2011 reboot of the series, Duke Nukem Forever, was met with polarizing reviews.
Whether you’re a longtime Duke fan or a greenhorn to the series, you can purchase Duke Nukem 1 + 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Balls of Steel, and Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project on Good Old Games for $0.59 each. You can also buy them all as a bundle for a tantalizing $2.36. At that low a price, there’s really no reason not to pick up the Duke, considering we don’t know when he’ll make his glorious return.