Duke Begins Project Canned by 2K Games

Some recent information about the brewing legal confrontation between 3D Realms and Take-Two indicated that the publisher could and would have published an Xbox 360 version of Duke Nukem Forever if given the chance. Court filings by 3D Realms (formally Apogee) indicate that development on a Duke title was in progress at a Take-Two studio already.

"On October 22, 2007, Apogee, Take-Two, and 2K Games entered into an agreement in which Apogee granted 2K Games the exclusive right to develop and publish a new videogame based upon Apogee's Duke Nukem franchise... The new game was given the working title of Duke Begins and is not the same game as the DNF game," reads the filing uncovered by GamePolitics.com. "The original development schedule for the Duke Begins game provided that the game was to be completed and commercially released by mid-2010."

"Take Two and/or its subsidiary 2K Games halted or otherwise cancelled all development work by the third-party game developer on the Duke Begins game in April 2009... without Apogee's approval or consent," the filing continued. "When Apogee confronted Take-Two and 2K Games about the... cancellation of the Duke Begins development work... Take-Two and 2K Games simply denied it... Take-Two and 2K Games are taking such actions with a goal of pressuring Apogee to sell the Duke Nukem franchise rights to Take-Two for less than their true value."

The situation surrounding Duke Nukem Forever is such a tangled web. Did this Duke Begins project fail because Duke Nukem Forever wasn't making good progress, or was the intent a malicious cancellation to deprive 3D Realms/Apogee of licensing fees?