Shacknews has a very thorough article put together concerning the recent legal filings in the ongoing lawsuit between Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms (subsidiary of Apogee) and publisher Take Two. The nitty gritty boils down to this: Take Two wanted an Xbox 360 port of DNF and hit up 3D Realms early in 2009 to make it happen. What followed is a subject of much debate and led to the most devastating food fight ever perpetrated on U.S. soil (okay, I made that last part up). However, if you look closely enough, there is a glimmer of hope that the Duke hasn’t crossed the black river just yet.

Based on the court filings, Take Two claims 3D Realms wanted unreasonable quantities of cash to develop both PC and 360 versions of the game alongside each other. Given that Duke Nukem Forever was announced twelve years ago, Take Two was apprehensive to commit resources and offered a deal which would see them pay half of their obligation once DNF hit the Alpha milestone, with the remaining half payable on delivery of the final game. 3D realms counters that Take Two changed the deets of the agreement in the eleventh hour, ultimately proposing an “unacceptable” deal which would see the publisher acquire the DNF property and development team outright.

In any case, negotiations broke down early this year and the development team working on Duke Nukem Forever has since been disbanded in the wake of 3D Realms’ financial problems. Or should I say supposed financial problems. In an interesting twist, Take Two is claiming that Apogee is, in fact, flush with cash sitting in a numbered off-shore account. More than enough, they claim, to fulfill their financial obligations.

One can hardly argue that there hasn’t been some astounding mismanagement at 3D Realms, but Take Two’s new claim seems to infer that something far shadier may be going on. What exactly are the nature of the alleged shenanigans? Who knows? I do know that it doesn’t take twelve years to develop a video game. 3D Realms issued a statement denying any wrong doing and pointing out that they’ve been involved in legal issues before and been cleared every time.

So where’s the glimmer of hope I promised? Take Two claims that as part of their original agreement, they have exclusive rights to develop and distribute a console version of DNF. Further, they assert to have a claim on the game in its current, uncompleted form to achieve that end. Make no mistake, Take Two wants this game released.

For their part, if 3D Realms is financially exhausted, then it is also in their best interests to release Duke Nukem Forever as a way to recoup their losses. If they’ve been engaging in dirty pool, as Take Two claims, its going to come out in court, in which case Take Two will probably get what it wants and acquire the game wholly; leaving no further obstacles to them developing and releasing it themselves.

How long are we talking for all this? A good long while. The wheels of justice turn slowly and we’re still talking about a game that isn’t even finished. Whatever the outcome, here at the Axe, we hope the Duke rides again and we’ll continue to update you as the case develops.