Duke Nukem Forever is almost here – no more jokes, we swear – and Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford says it just had to be done.

As he states quite eloquently over at the PlayStation Blog , his team just couldn't let The Duke die. And in regards to Duke Nukem Forever coming to the PlayStation 3, Pitchford makes a good point:

"We had to bring Duke Nukem Forever to PlayStation 3. We had to. There was simply no other choice, especially since Duke has had more adventures on the original PlayStation – Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes – than any other console."

He goes on to explain that his team's mission is to "complete and deliver the game," and he claims the project "is the worthy sequel we all hoped it would be." It's also interesting to note that other studios have assisted with this production: Pitchford gives credit to Triptych Games, a studio created by former 3D Realms employees. The Gearbox CEO says Triptych "carried the torch and kept the game going in those dark months after the story broke that Duke Nukem Forever was dead." Furthermore, Piranha Games has helped with the multiplayer aspect, so they deserve a nod.

But here's the coolest part-

"I have estimated that 3D Realms invested between 3,500 and 4,500 man-months of effort into the game, a lot of which has been lost to the ages. Meanwhile, by the time Gearbox ships the game we’ll have put in another 2,500 man months of effort. I’ve never been involved with a project of this magnitude. By comparison, Borderlands, which is by no means a small game and involved the invention of an entirely new universe and new technologies to support crazy features like millions of guns, involved between 3,500 and 4,000 man-months of effort."

That's a lot of freakin' man-months. This is gonna be worth the wait, right Randy?

Related Game(s): Duke Nukem Forever