A new Duke Nukem game was scheduled for a public reveal in two days, however this title may never see the light of day. Gearbox – who currently owns the rights of the Duke Nukem IP – has sued both 3D Realms and Interceptor Entertainment for making unlawful use of Gearbox’s IP.
This obviously means that Interceptor Entertainment may be forced to cancel the game. Of course that is if the developer does not come to an agreement with Gearbox.
As Gearbox’s complaint reads:
“Recently — and without consulting the Duke IP’s actual owner, Gearbox — Interceptor announced its intent to develop a Duke Nukem game based upon the various characters, content and intellectual property owned by Gearbox. Apparently, after selling its Duke Nukem IP rights to Gearbox in 2010, 3DR sought to privately convince others that the sale never happened. The result is the unauthorized development effort that reportedly exists between 3DR and Interceptor.”
Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction is said to be an isometric action role-playing game for PC and Playstation, powered by Unreal Engine.
Kudos to Polygon for spotting it!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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That POS studio that is Gearbox, who themselves cannot make a single good game, except for the somewhat decent Borderlands series, not allowing others to make one either!
Just yesterday night, I reinstalled Duke 3D with the HRP + eduke32(64-bit) + Duke Plus mods and boy it is a blast! I would really love an awesome new Duke Nukem game…
when you can’t beat em, sue em
To be fair duke nukem was jokes and good level design, without levelord who made those levels, any duke nukem game wouldnt be particulary impressive.
I never liked duke nukem for the combat, but for the jokes and level design and the shrinker/freezegun.
They weren’t consulted. What do you expect? It’s not their fault THEIR IP was being wrongfully used.
And Gearbox essentially saved Duke Nukem from vapoware. 3DRealms needed a bailout so sold the IP to GearBox in 2010. GearBox just released whatever was developed. They’re not the bad guys here.
No, just no
Gearbox is pretty much a bloody vampire, who keeps feeding on others peoples IPs to finance their things. They have bought the rights? Yes. They do something good with it? No.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_Duke_Nukem_Forever
“3D Realms laid off the DNF staff on May 8, 2009 due to lack of funding, but inside sources claimed it would still operate as a smaller company.[41] Development on DNF halted, and its fate was unknown”
And later on…
“After ceasing internal game development, 3D Realms approached noted game developers Gearbox Software[note 2] and asked them if they were interested in helping Triptych Games polish the nearly finished PC version and port it to the consoles.”
GearBox essentially released what was already there. They were only involved in ‘finalizing’ the port. If you want to blame someone, blame the original developers who took 12 years of Take-Two’s financing and made something short of a cobbled-together game.
Also from http://www.vg247.com/2014/02/23/gearbox-suing-interceptor-over-duke-nukem-mass-destruction/
“Gearbox describes the project it took on as a “technological jigsaw puzzle of a video game” and that it found that the “work product was sorely deficient” containing “a mountain of problems” too numerous to list in one pleading”
I dont see whats the problem here, gearbox can just hire them to make the game for them while they make the 4035356th dlc for borderlands 2.
Just like they did with colonial marines.
“Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction is said to be an isometric action role-playing game”
THIS IS WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT? Really? REALLY??
I thought we were gonna get a new big fps from interceptor and this whole thing is for what best can descrbed duke nukem manhattan project 2?
I still dont see what the proble is, isnt there a serious same game called random encounter and a half life game called codename gordon? Well its something like that gearbox should ask for a cut since they are c3nts and let them release it.
Manhattan Project was not an isometric RPG. It was a side scroller like the first two Duke games.
it was a low budget indie game.
This “new” duke nukem game is a small spin off just like serious sam random encounter and codename gordon not a main title of the series.
Umm… i-I liked manhattan project…
didnt say it was bad, just a spin off and i am liking guardian of light but its not a main tomb raider game.
This is what happens when money greed kicks in, selfish egoistical pricks should be Wall Street American bankers. Why must they behave like little crybabies? Is money everything in the world??
when they run out of resources, then they will reallize that money isnt everything. Until then, it doesnt matter how much povetry exists or how natural resources are dissapearing because you know, they got enough useless paper to buy the last glass of water on the planet.
But thats for another discussion.
???
They should sue. This is their IP. If they don’t sue, other people will misappropriate the IP based on this precedent. This is only in line with the concept that artists should be compensated for their work. Without IP court battles, artists wouldn’t get compensated. The rest of your statement sounds very naive.
Everyone who buys Gearbox products is a FAGGOT. Simple as that.
No actually:
“When Interceptor announced – or perhaps more accurately “teased” – Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction in early February, Gearbox sent a cease and desist to 3D Realms”
Source: http://www.vg247.com/2014/02/23/gearbox-suing-interceptor-over-duke-nukem-mass-destruction/
Story is better laid out on that link.
Also, Gearbox wasn’t consulted. How are they to know this game was in production? Why was the game in production in the first place when the companies who made it know full well they sold the rights over to GearBox?
I’m okay I know about the DNF thing, but what I’m trying to say is: Okay, I understand that is business, I understand is about money but, you can try to have some pride and self respect AND respect for the consumers and well step away from a clear mess.
“Gearbox describes the project it took on as a “technological jigsaw
puzzle of a video game” and that it found that the “work product was
sorely deficient” containing “a mountain of problems” too numerous to
list in one pleading”
And even with that they accept the project. For what reason? To make quick buck to I dunno, launch some more bloody Borderlands DLC. And after that be a d!ck about the IP.
Whatever profits or ‘quick buck’ they earned were exactly that: earned. It’s a free market. There’s complete information about the product for consumers to justify buying it. Consumers acted on it. You can’t blame the developer for releasing something people apparently wanted.
And there’s no way for you to stipulate whether GearBox truly wanted to release it. They may or may not. Whatever you or I say is hearsay. And actually, if the project has many problems or issues, publishers generally won’t want to undertake those risks. It’s generally not profitable. GearBox did it. Why? Maybe they liked the franchise/IP.
“And after that be a d!ck about the IP”
I’m not sure what you mean by this. GearBox are in the right – morally and legally. You won’t let someone steal your work and deny the people who are entitled to whatever restitution comes out of using this IP, so GearBox was totally within their right to sue the plaintiff. The plaintiff was aware of this transaction of IP, but they went along with making the game anyway.
I’m not arguing with the legitimacy (is that a word?) of the whole thing. I’m just saying that they do not deserve to be defended/praised. IT IS their right, just isn’t the RIGHT THING.
And actually, if the project has many problems or issues, publishers generally won’t want to undertake those risks. It’s generally not profitable. GearBox did it. Why? Maybe they liked the franchise/IP.
Or maybe they went along with the risk for quick buck, you said:
You can’t blame the developer for releasing something people apparently wanted.
People wanted, Gearbox saw that was a mess, “took the risk” anyway. Made quick cash, lost some reputation, but as long as they have Borderlands os all okay eh?
You’re not getting it. IT’S the RIGHT THING to do for exactly the reasons I described above.
Again you’re using hearsay. You don’t think Borderlands 1 or 2 are self sustaining? Borderlands has YTD 4.5million sold. Borderlands 2 has 7.5 million sold.
“People wanted, Gearbox saw that was a mess, “took the risk” anyway”
No. Because they only helped develop it. Let me describe it for you. Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) had taken 12 years development time from 2K publishing house. In 2009 development halted. Litigations ensued over inefficiency over development. 2K games writes the game off as a LOSS. DNF worked on by skeleton team and approaches Gearbox for help in development. Gearbox assesses economic (opportunity) cost. Given current track record, would be MORE PROFITABLE to get developers to continue work on OTHER game. DOES IT ANYWAY. Who knows whether it was profitable for them to work on it unless you KNOW THE CONTRACTUAL REMUNERATION granted to them by the publisher 2K.
*sighs* I don’t want argue about this anymoooore >_<
Personally i like Brothers in Arms, and hope for another one. Not that it is related to this discussion.