Gearbox CEO has revealed the studio has already done concept work for a new Duke Nukem game.

Speaking during his opening keynote at Develop: Brighton, Pitchford explained he didn't secure the Duke Nukem license merely to release the ill-fated Duke Nukem Forever.

"I did not acquire the franchise merely so we could all experience Duke Nukem Forever. That was the toll to pay to give Duke a chance. That said, I liked that game," he said. "I got to see it from a slightly different perspective and it was marvellous to me.

"We’ve done some concept development [for a new game] and I think the challenges are there. Gearbox is very busy. I think the faster way is that a correct developer can become interested and we can work with them. I think it’s a challenging problem. But, I’ll tell you one thing. When it does happen, there’s no doubt that the whole industry will turn its head and look.

"Getting attention is one of the hardest things to do. In fact, that’s probably the biggest challenge that [Duke Nukem] Forever had. For 10 years, these guys promised that it was going to be the greatest game ever right? It was legendary in its vapourware status. So it has this particular pole of attention that makes it probably three or four times more famous than Borderlands as a franchise. Not necessarily from a gamer's [perspective] that are really clued in to what’s going on in game development in the industry, but certainly among the greater whole community."

The last entry in the series, Duke Nukem Forever, was released in 2011 after an unprecedented 15-year gestation to largely negative-to-mediocre reviews.