From our front-page news:
It's been a good two months since we all found out that 3DRealms had shut down, and a lot has happened since. Of course as we now know, 3DRealms hasn't actually shut down completely, but rather currently exists with a truly skeletal team. It's also been found out that Duke Nukem Forever development hasn't completely ceased, either, but the company is keeping tight-lipped on the entire situation for probably obvious reasons.
Game news site Shacknews has been following the entire debacle since it all began, and in the past few days, a few interesting bits of information has arisen. First is the fact that 3DR hasn't stopped releasing screenshots for the upcoming game, but have oddly chosen to release them on the official Duke Nukem Facebook page. But, the screenshots aren't what's truly interesting here...
As it became known after 3DR was known to have shuttered, the company received $2.5M worth of funding towards DNF by Take-Two, but the reasoning behind it wasn't too clear, except for perhaps the fact that the company had exclusive publishing rights, and understandably wanted to see the title released. Well, it turns out that the funding was part of a deal Take-Two made in order to publish another unrelated Duke Nukem title through a third-party publisher, now revealed as Gearbox.
What happens from here-on-out is yet to be seen, though. The title from Gearbox, titled "Duke Begins" has had its development halted, though Take-Two stresses that it hasn't been cancelled (as a Duke fan, I hope not). Either way, the entire mess is just that... a mess, so it's going to take a while until it gets sorted out. Hopefully it will happen sooner than later, so fans can finally put their minds at rest.
As for the ongoing soap opera regarding Duke Nukem Forever and the funding issues that led to 3D Realms laying off most of its staff, Take-Two denies knowing in advance that terminating the funding negotiations between the two would lead to layoffs, though 3D Realms asserts Take-Two was "fully aware" of this "weeks before." And though 3D Realms claims it continues to work on "the development of" Duke Nukem Forever and has no contractual deadline by which it must deliver the game, Take-Two writes that the "law implies a reasonable deadline for the completion of contractual performance where no deadline is explicitly set forth in the contract."
Source: Shacknews
Game news site Shacknews has been following the entire debacle since it all began, and in the past few days, a few interesting bits of information has arisen. First is the fact that 3DR hasn't stopped releasing screenshots for the upcoming game, but have oddly chosen to release them on the official Duke Nukem Facebook page. But, the screenshots aren't what's truly interesting here...
As it became known after 3DR was known to have shuttered, the company received $2.5M worth of funding towards DNF by Take-Two, but the reasoning behind it wasn't too clear, except for perhaps the fact that the company had exclusive publishing rights, and understandably wanted to see the title released. Well, it turns out that the funding was part of a deal Take-Two made in order to publish another unrelated Duke Nukem title through a third-party publisher, now revealed as Gearbox.
What happens from here-on-out is yet to be seen, though. The title from Gearbox, titled "Duke Begins" has had its development halted, though Take-Two stresses that it hasn't been cancelled (as a Duke fan, I hope not). Either way, the entire mess is just that... a mess, so it's going to take a while until it gets sorted out. Hopefully it will happen sooner than later, so fans can finally put their minds at rest.
As for the ongoing soap opera regarding Duke Nukem Forever and the funding issues that led to 3D Realms laying off most of its staff, Take-Two denies knowing in advance that terminating the funding negotiations between the two would lead to layoffs, though 3D Realms asserts Take-Two was "fully aware" of this "weeks before." And though 3D Realms claims it continues to work on "the development of" Duke Nukem Forever and has no contractual deadline by which it must deliver the game, Take-Two writes that the "law implies a reasonable deadline for the completion of contractual performance where no deadline is explicitly set forth in the contract."
Source: Shacknews
