Thought Duke was done making headlines? Well, you may be right, if you were thinking of Duke Nukem Forever’s development. A settlement was recently reached in the lawsuit centering around Duke Nukem Forever. On June 11 a Take-Two representative confirmed with IGN that the lawsuit had come to a close.
On May 17, 2009, Take-Two sued 3D Realms/Apogee Ltd. for breach of contract. The claim was that 3D Realms and Apogee breached the contract by continually delaying the game. Of course, 3D Realms filed a countersuit claiming Duke needed more time in development. Essentially, the lawsuit would have caused the Duke Nukem franchise to change hands if it was successful.
Thankfully, the matter has been resolved and all the agreements are undisclosed. Also, a stipulation of dismissal of prejudice was put in action on May 28. In other words, neither parties can be sued for the same actions again. A Take-Two rep stated, “We can confirm that the matter has been resolved and the company is not providing additional details of the agreement”. 3D Realms representatives had no comments to add.
While Duke Nukem Forever has been plagued by a long, still continuing, development cycle and massive downsizings of staff, it seems any litigation surrounding the game is now in the past.