Gearbox doit encore des royalties Ă 3D Realms Duke Nuke'm
While the world and his dog might have moved on long ago from Duke Nukeâm Forever and its lacklustre appearance after over a decade and a half of development, apparently 3D Realms, the original IP owner, hasnât. According to a new report, itâs suing developer Gearbox, because it hasnât been paid over two million dollars in royalty payments.
3D Realms maintains that Gearbox breached its contract, by not following through with royalty and advance payments for the game. On top of that though, Realms is also claiming Gearbox blocked an independent ordit of its royalties.
â3D Realms has therefore been required to file this lawsuit to enforce the purchase agreement, to recover the amounts due and owing from Gearbox and to enforce the audit right provided by the agreement to enable it to conduct an audit of Gearboxâs royalties,â reads the complaint.
Gearbox hasnât been keeping quiet however, releasing its own statement that seemed indignant at 3D Realmsâ suit, suggesting that it was in-fact the only company that made any money on the game, due to its poor critical and consumer reception.
The reason this deal has gone sour however, isnât because the game did poorly, itâs supposedly to do with the fact that Gearbox took on nearly $3 million of 3D Realmsâ debt when it acquired the Duke Nukeâm license. However, after the game started selling (poorly) it decided that it only needed to pay royalties to Realms, after it had recouped the debt investment.
This wasnât part of the original deal.
Still, itâs all a bit odd since 3D Realms doesnât really develop anymore. While there are a few of the old guard still kicking around, itâs mostly publishing mobile versions of its old games and working with other developers on new projects.
Itâs certainly not the Apogee or 3D realms of old.