Poor Dallas Business Journal. Earlier today, they published an interview, in which 3D Realms tell them Duke Nukem Forever is headed for a late-2008 release. Cue internet celebrations! Except at 3D Realms. See, they're not used to dealing with "mainstream" press. Just gaming press. And obviously weren't under the impression the DBJ were going to print everything they were told. In a statement issued on 3D Realms' forums, George Broussard says:

In what appears to be an unfortunate turn of events, there seems to have been some confusion between what was 'off the record' and what was not. I suppose we're used to dealing with gaming press and not mainstream press. Lesson learned.

While we have internal targets, dates and goals, like every developer, we are not ready to share them. What's amazing about this is that the DBJ must have assumed that we'd actually announce a date to them, and not gaming press, and that even in the light of Scott's quote of "We can't make an official announcement.", the DBJ effectively did that. Lesson learned.

The release date is still 'when it's done', and will be until the appropriate moment. Platforms have not been finalized or announced. You can rest assured that we are moving toward a goal and that the recently released teaser trailer is the start of that process and seeing more of the game, sooner than later.

We apologize to gamers and websites everywhere for this series of events. Sometimes, you can be too trusting of people and assume things that come back to bite you. Lesson learned.

In other words, yes, they are looking at a late-2008 release date, they're just upset they blew the announcement on the Dallas Business Journal.

Send an email to the author of this post at plunkett@kotaku.com.