Duke It Out: Take-Two Sues Apogee over Duke Nukem Forever

By Geoff Duncan May 15, 2009

Duke It Out: Take-Two Sues Apogee over Duke Nukem Forever

At this point, it should come as no surprise that the saga of the mythical video game Duke Nukem Forever—which began in 1997, never shipped, and recently had its development studio shut down—isn’t over yet. According to Bloomberg, Take-Two Interactive has filed suit against Apogee Software over the failed game. Apogee is the corporate entity under which Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms operated, but Take-Two owned the publishing rights to the game. According to Take-Two, by shutting down development on the game, Apogee is in breach of contract.

“Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever,” Take-Two wrote in its complaint. “Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever.“

Take Two made a $12 million agreement with Apogee to publish Duke Nukem Forever in 2000; in 2007, the companies executed a second publishing agreement.

In the meantime, Apogee seems to want the gaming community to continue to believe everything is fine and dandy with the Duke Nukem franchise: it has just announced an online casting call for a live-action Duke Nukem project.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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