Take Two Sues Over Duke Nukem Forever

Kris Erickson • May 15, 2009 • Comments ()

It turns out we might have been wrong about the closure of 3D Realms being nothing more than a viral marketing stunt. Take Two Interactive, the publisher of Duke Nukem Forever, seems to think that the closure is very real, and they aren't happy about it. The publisher has brought suit against the owners of 3D Realms for failing to deliver the long-awaited title.

In the court documents, Take Two claims that an agreement to finish the shooter was breached when 3D Realms closed its doors. At the time of the studio's closing, Duke Nukem Forever had been in development for over 12 years. We don't yet know the details of the reason for 3D Realms closure, but it has been rumored that the publisher cut funding for the project after becoming fed up with the limited progress. Take Two apparently paid $12 million for the exclsuive rights to publish the title back in the year 2000.

The complaint by Take Two, dated May 11, seeks to prevent 3D Realms from destroying or selling the source code for the uncompleted game.

The court has been asked to prevent 3D realms from "Altering, damaging or destroying the existing source and object code for the videogame known as "Duke Nukem Forever" and be required to maintain and enforce all security measures necessary to preserve the integrity of that code," as well as from "disclosing, distributing, transferring or selling to any party other than Take Two any proprietary information related to DNF (including the source and object code for DNF)."

Based on early test footage that has been leaked onto the net, the game did not look like it was anywhere near making a 2009 release date. It might be that the source code isn't of much value to Take Two after all.