Megaton rumor: Duke Nukem Forever resuming development at Gearbox?

Duke came here to finish development and chew gum. And he's finally all out of gum.

According to anonymous sources that spoke with Kotaku, Duke Nukem Forever has - like the phoenix of legend, except with an even longer lifespan - risen from the ashes. Apparently, however, this time Borderlands developer Gearbox is taking the reigns, which sounds like the best thing to ever happen, if we're being honest.

A playable demo of the game may even drop later this year, indicated one source, since Gearbox is allegedly picking up where 3D Realms left off development-wise. Where this leaves Gearbox's Duke Nukem Begins spin-off, meanwhile, is anyone's guess at this point.

As far as actual confirmation goes, every lead's run smack dab into a brick wall. Imagine a choir chorus of "No comments" and you'll have a pretty good idea of what we're dealing with. However, Gearbox president Randy Pitchford loosened his lips just long enough to hint that more news might be on the way at PAX, which convenes at the beginning of September.

For now, though, fingers crossed. This, we think, is a match made in game development heaven - and not just because it's much preferred to Duke's old residence in game development purgatory.