Duke Nukem dev 3D Realms not closing
Studio denies allegations made by Take-Two's pending lawsuit; claims team is regrouping
A representative from Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms has issued a response to a pending lawsuit from publisher Take-Two Interactive, denying allegations made by the company and revealing that the studio has not closed its doors.
According to a statement issued to the press by an unnamed representative, the studio - which laid off the Duke Nukem Forever development team earlier this month - "has not closed and is not closing." It is, instead, working to "regroup as a company."
"While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise," the statement said.
3D Realms also denied allegations made by Take-Two over fees paid for publishing rights, saying that the studio had not received any money from Take-Two.
"Take-Two never paid 3DR advances or any signing bonus or any other funds related to DNF, up until July 2008, at which time they paid $2.5m in connection with another agreement for an unannounced game," said the statement.
"This is the sum total Take-Two has paid 3DR in connection with DNF. Take-Two claims that they paid USD 12m to GT Interactive/Infogrames to acquire the publishing rights for the DNF game. To be clear, 3DR was not a party to that transaction and did not receive any money from it. When the DNF game was originally signed with GT Interactive in 1998, GT paid 3DR a USD 400,000 signing bonus. Up until July 2008, this was the only publisher money we received for the DNF game. Meanwhile, 3DR put over USD 20m into the production of DNF."
The statement also revealed that while Take-Two retains publishing rights for Duke Nukem Forever, 3D Realms "retains certain rights to sell the game directly to the public."
In direct response to the lawsuit, 3D Realms said that "While we cannot comment on the details of the ongoing lawsuit, we believe Take-Two's lawsuit is without merit and merely a bully tactic to obtain ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. We will vigorously defend ourselves against this publisher."
3D Realms announced its highly anticipated Duke Nukem Forever FPS in 1997. Over twelve years later, its development team was let go due, according to 3D Realms, to a change in the game's publishing agreement that left the studio unable to pay its employees.