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| [May 15, 2009, 09:00 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
Bloomberg.com reports that Take-Two Interactive is suing 3D Realms and
Apogee over the 3D Realms' closure and the whole Duke Nukem
Forever in limbo situation ((thanks
GamesIndustry.biz). Word is: Take-Two Sues Apogee Over ‘Duke Nukem’
Game Sequel
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the maker of the “Grand Theft Auto” video
games, sued Apogee Software Ltd.’s 3D Realms over the failed development of a
sequel to the “Duke Nukem” game called “Duke Nukem Forever.”
Take-Two, owner of the publishing rights to the game, said Apogee breached an
agreement to design the latest installment of Duke Nukem, a game in which the
player “shoots” enemies. The new version has been under development since 1997,
the company said yesterday in a complaint in a state court in Manhattan.
3D Realms, which was based in Garland, Texas, never produced the game and
instead closed its studio on May 6, terminated development of the game and fired
employees who had been involved in the Duke Nukem project, Take-Two said.
“Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever,”
Take-Two said in the 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 said in 2000 it had an agreement with Apogee and paid $12 million for
publishing rights to the forthcoming game. In 2007, the two companies entered
into a second agreement.
The case is Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. v. Apogee Software Ltd.
601457/2009, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan).
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| 67. |
Re: Take-Two Suing 3D Realms |
May 15, 2009, 15:28 |
dsmart |
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@ GT
Derek,
When you sued Dreamcatcher over Universal Combat, you did so in Canada. Why there? Was it specified in the publishing agreement that disputes were subject to Dreamcatcher's jurisdiction and not your company's?
I sued them there - twice - because that was the venue in the contract. Plus they're a foreign company.
If the venue was, say, Florida, then I could sue them in Florida, but according to the conventions established by The Hague for International lawsuits, they'd still need to be served in Canada and thus be given the chance to respond to the Florida suit by getting their own Florida attorney.
New York State has some stringent rules about lawsuits and Take2 (who's lawyers am sure are not asleep on the job) would not have sued there if they didn't have venue disposition. So now its up to 3DR to respond (they have to or they face a default judgement in favor of T2) to the lawsuit by using a lawyer that is licensed to practice law in New York State.
Riiiiiiight. Are you aware of what 20+ developers, salary + bennies, plus hardware, plus software, plus blow, plus hookers, plus leasing a space is for 12 years? They didn't fund themselves.
Thats not what happened. 3DR did in fact fund DNF 100% by themselves. In addition to royalties and sales of their pre-existing properties, they also got money from the other titles they've released during that time, as well as from the sale of some IP to T2 by the now defunct (Mike Wilson's first of two such companies) God Games.
Get your facts right, fool.
Take2 has every right to sue for performance under the contract. But if 3DR in fact had a contract with them for the title. Fact is, they don't. If they did, it would be part of the lawsuit. I'm sure there'll be a lot more docs in discovery. But right now, as Scott Miller says, its all spin by people who don't have fracking clue.
T2 doesn't have a single leg to stand on to sue 3DR for something they bought without it being tied to 3DR. Thats like me buying your sister's busted car and she tells me that her boyfriend will fix it. The bastard doesn't fix it, so I sue him - even though him and I have no dealings whatsoever.
The only way I can see this going South and against 3DR is if Take2 assumed a publishing contract from Infogrames and which held 3DR to very specific performances under the contract. My guess is that no such thing exists because if it did, T2 would have sued by now instead of waiting for almost seven years and 3DR to go tits up.
This is going to end up either being some sort of settlement in which 3DR gets to finish the game as funded by T2 or T2 get all the stuff from the project. Either way, 3DR is going to be hurt by this. Especially if it goes to trial. If it goes to trial, all bets are off and the standards - and the bar - are raised higher. For one thing, a judge is going to take one look at GB and probably have him in shackless by the end of the day just for showing up and not explaining wtf they were doing for TWELVE FUCKING YEARS.
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Game developers are just human beings who happen to make games for a living. If you want to hold us up to higher standards of conduct, then go ahead
...but don't be surprised if we don't uphold them |
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