Wooo boy. It’s tin-foil hat time, folks. With speculation over Valve’s surprise E3 announcement, there’s been a flood of pictures and information purporting to be the genuine article.
None have been quite as juicy – or frankly, unlikely, as this. Current unfounded rumours speculate that Valve’s big surprise is that they’ve acquired, and will release Duke Nukem Forever.
Valve’s main page was apparently updated yesterday, and for a grand total of four minutes, displayed a page with just the numbers “61810.†Some believe this to be a date, the 18th of June. Strangely, that’s the day after E3 ends. Even more curiously, somebody apparently manipulated the image, increasing its brightness, ultimately leading to this :
That looks curiously like the Duke, doesn’t it? Also interesting are the Take 2 logos, and the Source logo that’s been appended with a 2. Is Valve bringing us a new engine. Source, while fantastic and modular is producing games that are looking a little dated.
Is it possible that Valve snapped up the rights from now defunct 3D Realms, and will be bringing us Duke Nukem Forever on a new Source engine? I find it rather unlikely. Valve have enough to do to keep their Half-Life fan base happy – they need episode 3, or even Half Life 3, and they need it soon. Duke Nukem Forever is also currently at the centre of a large legal battle. The IP is still owned by 3D Realms.
Valve are also generally much better at these sort of games. they tend to be pretty clever, using all manner of ways to encrypt their communiqué. this seems much too basic for them.
I’m calling this bogus – but it’s nice to have hope, isn’t it? what do you think? could it be real? What do YOU think Valve’s big announcement will be?
Sources : Steam Forums, Facepunch
Last Updated: June 8, 2010
Nick de Bruyne
June 8, 2010 at 16:00
I just took that top image of the number and played with the levels, and the Duke image does show up. That’s not to say that the top one wasn’t tampered with though. If this is true it will be might interesting
koldFU5iON
June 8, 2010 at 16:18
ER … fail T2 and EA working on the same game? really? … I don’t think so
Hooloovoo
June 8, 2010 at 18:55
Well EA is Valve’s non-digital distribution publishing partner and Take 2 was originally publishing Duke and they funded 3D Realm’s development on it so they have an existing contract with the ip, So Valve is prob forced to work with both publishers to further develop and release the game.
Hooloovoo
June 8, 2010 at 18:58
All I can say is the game will rock is valve is doing it, but valve isn’t exactly punctual with their release dates, so it could be a long wait.
Parker
June 8, 2010 at 19:25
Already disproved, image is a fake.
lans
June 8, 2010 at 19:29
valves big announcement is source engine 2!
its pretty obvious then half life 3 but that will be sometime later this year
John
June 9, 2010 at 08:52
Wow, I am so looking foward to this! NOT! Guys, this is a fake, seriously, you have to be 10c short of a Dollar to believe this garbage! Valve seriously has to reveal some information on the next Half-Life. Personally, I think that the “surprize” will be Half-Life 3. If it wasn’t half life related, then Gabe Newel would of said. “its not half-life” rather than “its not Ep3” It also could be Source engine 2, with Half Life 3, that could be why they are taking so long to do it, working on a full sequel with an updated engine rather than another episode. All our suspicians will be answered next week! I bloody hope its Half-Life related, it has to be.
John
June 9, 2010 at 08:56
and you want proof that its a fake? Look at the numbers, I know valve, and that is not their style, its just some shitty WordArt
John
June 9, 2010 at 09:10
And also, if this is supposedly true, Why in hell would Valve Introduce an updated source engine with a sequel to somebody elses game? They would introduce it with a brand new game or a sequel to one of valves original games (a.k.a Half Life 3)
WitWolfyZA
June 9, 2010 at 10:30
Its definitely not Forever. Has to be some new Engine or maybe another L4D 😆
squall23
June 9, 2010 at 12:11
Yeah, because a guy with glasses can’t be GORDAN FREEMAN.
Dave
June 14, 2010 at 02:00
He has shotgun shells on his shoulders. He has black sunglasses. The neck line looks identical.
You’re a moron if you don’t think it looks like Duke. Look harder.
That said, we’ll see what happens.