In an interesting, but perhaps completely unsurprising, turn of events, publisher Take 2 are suing the now-defunct 3D Realms. Bloomberg has the story:

Take-Two, owner of the publishing rights to the game, said Apogee breached an agreement to design the latest installment of Duke Nukem, a game in which the player “shoots” enemies. The new version has been under development since 1997, the company said yesterday in a complaint in a state court in Manhattan.
...
“Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever,” Take-Two said in the complaint. “Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever.”

The drama will no doubt continue in the vacuum left by the evaporation of 3D Realms.

correct! the story is about 1 quarter of the way down the list. Take-Two are suing Apogee

Come to think of it.. I dunno why Apogee hasn't been sued earlier

They've had a decade to produce a product that they were paid over 10 million to deliver :/


It almost sounds like a scam

Come to think of it.. I dunno why Apogee hasn't been sued earlier

They've had a decade to produce a product that they were paid over 10 million to deliver :/


It almost sounds like a scam

yeh that's a pretty interesting question.. I suspect they just kept showing off partial builds/milestones that were sufficiently good enough and enticing enough to keep Take 2 on the hook for this long. I'm sure the details of what happened will come out as part of the court case.

a game in which the player “shoots” enemies

"shoots"? What a novel concept!

why are they suing apogee and not 3drealms?

apogee is 3drealms

They've had a decade to produce a product that they were paid over 10 million to deliver :/

actually from what i read, they made a deal with infogrames to publish dnf (no money upfront i think), infogrames then on sold those rights to take 2 for $12 million.

So apogee didnt see any money from them.

bunch of idiots the lot of them so IDK anyway. taking so long to develop a game will only make a release that is out dated and not what is expected of the gaming community in the future so meh live and learn i say

So where was the money coming from? Royalties from Prey and s***? Surely that didn't make a lot of money.