Apogee Suing Gearbox Over Unpaid Royalties For Duke Nukem Forever

jones_supa writes "Apogee Software/3D Realms alleges that Gearbox has refused to pay more than $2 million owed to 3D Realms from royalties and advances Gearbox received from publishers for Duke Nukem Forever. In a lawsuit filed June 7 in Texas district court, 3D Realms insists that its agreement with Gearbox permits it to conduct an audit of Gearbox's royalty statements, which the studio has not allowed. 'Gearbox is simply stonewalling here in an improper attempt to conceal information from 3D Realms that it is absolutely entitled to receive,' the suit alleges. The company also alleges that Gearbox has refused to pay the agreed-upon portion of revenue Gearbox received after Duke Nukem Forever was released. 3D Realms has asked for a jury trial. This suit is apparently the end result of a friendly deal gone wrong."

Comments

Wait, there were royalties?

[cervesaebraciator]

I thought you had to sell copies of a game for that to happen.

Re:Wait, there were royalties?

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

I bought a copy.
$5.00 On ebay. I got ripped off.
Can I sue someone?

Re:Wait, there were royalties?

[cervesaebraciator]

[...] if nothing else but for people to see what the game turned into.

This is the only reason I tried it. Well, that and it was an option to play as a demo on OnLive and (after some of the controversy) I wanted to see for myself whether one could play an FPS on OnLive. Turns out you can and the graphics quality can be beautiful--but only if you're playing casually enough to be apathetic if it lags or fails. After a few moments of the puerile body humor that is the basis for the game (points for using the urinal, really?) you can indeed reach that level of apathy. I think at the time you could "buy" the game, full-access, for $5 and I concluded it was not worth it. This game is a perfect example of why you don't really see downloadable demos like you used to.

Re:Wait, there were royalties?

[cervesaebraciator]

You're probably right that a lot of the problem with DNF is that its presumptive audience grew up. That and gaming has changed so much that many of the things that fresh and interesting in DN3D are now blasé. But your comparison of Chewbacca and Jar Jar has me mystified. Ewoks and Gungans, now that would be fair. But to say Chewbacca and Jar Jar are in any way comparable? Anathema sit!

Re:Wait, there were royalties?

[Dahamma]

According to this site it sold a combined 1.7M copies between PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Mind-boggling, I would have guessed a LOT less...

Re:Wait, there were royalties?

[QuantumLeaper]

I got mine for FREE and it was a rip off.

Wait, DNF came out?

[Sowelu]

I was honestly surprised reading this headline. Had to go look the game up, I thought it was still never released.

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[UltraZelda64]

Don't bother playing it, it's crap. It is nothing like what we were led to believe over the decade... it morphed into a piece of shit with Halo-knockoff controls and health-regeneration system. Sad too... many of the older trailers, from closer to 2000, were fucking awesome.

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[sconeu]

I guess we're back to waiting for Daikatana II?

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[jones_supa]

Croteam's Serious Sam on the other hand is still doing surprisingly well. SS4 is in the works, comes with a Linux version.

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[WillgasM]

SC: Ghost

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[kilfarsnar]

I may be the only person who actually liked DNF. I thought it was fun to play, and the Duke-isms cracked me up. "Who wants white meat, huh? Who wants some!" It wasn't game of the year or anything, but I got it for $5 from Game Stop and got every cent out of playing it.

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[Pinhedd]

It's the greatest mediocre game of all time.

It's not a bad or broken game in any way, just feels dated. Worth checking out for a few bucks.

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[lgw]

I don't understand the hate for this game. I thought it was great. Other than the regenerating health, it was a retro corridor shooter with plenty of pointless political incorrectness, weapons that would have been a cool follow-on to Quake 2, and monster truck driving. What else did anyone expect?

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[thygate]

DNF was fun to play through once, but has absolutely no re-playability imo.Go get Saints Row 4 !

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[Sowelu]

Life is pretty darn short to worry about replayability. If you wait to buy games until they've gotten cheap, and they're fun the first time through, does it really matter if you want to play it fifty more times?

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[dunezone]

Its a game that if it came out in 2001, I think it could have been up there as game of the year. I mean look at this trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDlB2P1leRM

If the game came out in 2005, it would have struggled to keep up with other FPS games but it could have contended.

But coming out in 2011 was six years too late. The final product felt like it came from 2005 and no later. I bought Duke Nukem Forever for a $10 in 2012, if I had paid $60 at launch for it, I would have been pissed because the game was not worth more than $10.

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[RogueyWon]

The funny thing is... it even makes a Halo joke at an early point in the plot.

As in... Duke Nukem Forever (one of the worst fpses of recent years and a commercial and reputational disaster) takes the piss out of Halo (which, like it or not, is incredibly successful).

Thing is... it's made even worse by the extent to which DNF rips off all the *WORST* parts of Halo. All of those tropes and cliches that Halo introduced that gaming in general could really do without:

- 2-weapon limits (say goodbye to tactical flexibility and hello to "the game's just given me a rocket launcher, guess I have to fight a tank next");

- regenerating health (goodbye tension); and

- hateful protagonist - the old Duke was kind of funny in a horrible way, the new one is just a trash-talking dudebro (much like the Master Chief).

At the same time, it omits the decent stuff from Halo - like the responsive controls (on a console) and the fairly open level design.

See, if they'd wanted to spoof Halo, they should have had the first level put only 2 weapons available. Then you get out of it... and a third weapon is ahead of you. A prompt pops up inviting you to swap one of your existing weapons for the new one. Except when you do so, Duke makes his Halo joke - and picks up a third weapon without dropping one of the ones he already had.

That would have been a proper dig at the hateful conventions introduce by Halo. As it is, it just felt pathetic.

Re:Wait, DNF came out?

[UltraZelda64]

Well said... I pretty much agree. I couldn't pinpoint exactly *what* it was about the new Duke, but he was lacking something. He seemed like less of a badass, trying to be funny so hard that he wasn't. The Halo-style two-weapon limit and automatic health regeneration were also two of the worst things about the game, gameplay-wise. Overall... everything just seemed stale. I couldn't even appreciate the game if it came out in, say, 2006 or so--DNF almost completely lacks what made Duke3D awesome. A game's a game, and the time period it came out (graphics, audio, etc.) doesn't mean shit. The game itself is where it's at, not the technological bling crap. Its predecessor is technically inferior in every way imaginable, but it's still a hell of a lot better to this day.

Don't worry...

[sconeu]

They'll pay you in the same amount of time it took you to release DNF.

Deal Gone Wrong, Really?

[interval1066]

Spend 15 years on development of a game that was so over-hyped and rediculously re-designed everytime a new game technology came out, then pushed on the back burner only to be re-animated every so often, promises made and broken over and over? Seriously, who could possibly imagine that someone would sue some one?

Re:I suspect they actually sold a decent number of

[Jerry Atrick]

They may have sold a lot, that's not the same as selling them at a profit.

My DVD copy was GBP0.99 (about US$1.50) delivered and was returned shop stock. They couldn't reduce it enough to sell in store, couldn't shift them at £5 soon after launch, £2.50 not long after that.

It's fair to say this was a disaster on total units sold compared to publisher expectations and an even bigger disaster on revenue. With an unknown amount of copies heading for landfill or sold at little profit or even a loss, Gearbox will be delaying any accounting as long as they can. Wouldn't be easy clawing back any royaltly overpayment and there's no future income from this turkey.

Re:DIE GAME DIE

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Duke Nukem was famous for many different weapon types, common to FPS games.

Then I read "DNF lets you only carry two weapon types at once." Why? Console design.

And I knew it had changed into something else. Other changes others have discusses, all related.