While the world and his dog might have moved on long ago from Duke Nuke'm Forever and its lacklustre appearance after over a decade and a half of development, apparently 3D Realms, the original IP owner, hasn't. According to a new report, it's suing developer Gearbox, because it hasn't 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.
"3D 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 Gearbox's royalties," reads the complaint.
Gearbox hasn't been keeping quiet however, releasing its own statement that seemed indignant at 3D Realms' 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, isn't because the game did poorly, it's supposedly to do with the fact that Gearbox took on nearly $3 million of 3D Realms' debt when it acquired the Duke Nuke'm 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 wasn't part of the original deal.
Still, it's all a bit odd since 3D Realms doesn't really develop anymore. While there are a few of the old guard still kicking around, it's mostly publishing mobile versions of its old games and working with other developers on new projects.
It's certainly not the Apogee or 3D realms of old.