What a Mess: 3D Realms Sets the Record Straight

This really pi$$es me off.

It’s been two weeks, and after all the rumours and “statements”, including the official goodbye on 3D Realms site, 3D Realms clears up the whole misconception about their “closure” and claims that Take-Two is full of alien b@stards. It turns out that the conspiracy theory, although wrong in suggesting that DNF was still in development, was right about 3DR not closing up shop at all.

3D Realms has in fact not closed, according to a press release recently, but the team working on Duke Nukem Forever was let go. 3DR claims it will continue to act as a company and license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.

3DR also states that it didn’t receive the $ 12 000 000 from Take-Two, but instead this was a deal between Take-Two and GT Interactive/Infogrames. It was only in July 2008 that Take-Two paid 3DR $ 2 500 000 in an agreement for another unannounced game.
GT Interactive (now Atari AFAIK) paid 3DR $ 400 000 in 1998, and this was the only publisher funding 3DR ever received, and a pittance compared to the $ 20 000 000 that 3DR put into the development of Duke Nukem Forever out of their own pocket.

The rumour about the $ 30 000 000 deal that was supposedly offered by Take-Two for the Duke Nukem IP is actually partially true, even though Scott Miller of 3DR allegedly denied it in a comment on Shacknews, which might not have been Scott Mi11er at all. Take-Two offered to acquire the DNF team and the Duke Nukem IP for an undisclosed amount. 3DR refused the deal and a few days later the DNF team was let go.

Last week, Take-Two filed a lawsuit against 3DR, but seeing as Take-Two didn’t ever actually give 3DR any money, the case is “without merit”, and is thought of as a school yard tactic in order to obtain ownership of the Duke Nukem IP.

Even though Take-Two has the publishing rights for Duke Nukem Forever, 3DR still has some rights to release the game directly to the public, which is interesting.

Now to see what actually happens to Duke Nukem Forever. Will it sit on the shelf, gathering dust? Will it remain on hold with 3DR, continuing to work on it at some point in the future? Will it be sold off to someone else or given to another developer to finish? Will it be released for free to the public (like hell)? Will it be cancelled forever and everything related to the game burnt and thrown away?

Things seem to be looking up a bit at the moment in any case- 3D Realms is still around.

Sources:

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58681
http://www.shacknews.com/docs/press/20090518_dnf_3dr_.x

What a Mess: 3D Realms Sets the Record Straight