Duke Nukem is one of the most famous video game characters of all time thanks to his no-nonsense attitude and his overall rock star persona. But another thing he is famous for is the fact that every game that features him is inevitably delayed time and time again.

Duke Nukem Forever was the latest example in this regard, taking almost 12 years to be developed, and now, to the disappointment of many fans, its creative team is laid off, as 3D Realms, which was in charge with developing the game, is facing serious financial problems.

As you may know, after seeing what happened to the game, the owners of the publishing rights, Take Two, filed a class-action suit against 3D Realms, asking for it to return the 12 million dollars that they had invested in the development of the game.

In a statement meant to deny these things, George Broussard, the president of 3D Realms, has revealed that his company alone invested over 20 million dollars in Duke Nukem Forever, and that Take Two only contributed with 2.5 million, which was meant for an unannounced game and not Duke Nukem Forever.

“Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing. 3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise,” Broussard said. “Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6th, while we regroup as a company. While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.”

The executive has revealed that when his company realized it couldn't support funding the game alone, it asked Take Two for help and began negotiating an agreement with it. But at the last minute, Take Two backed away from the deal and simply offered to buy the whole Duke Nukem franchise from the company. “Take-Two's proposal was unacceptable to 3DR for many reasons, including no upfront money, no guarantee minimum payment, and no guarantee to complete the DNF game. From 3DR's perspective, we viewed Take-Two as trying to acquire the Duke Nukem franchise in a "fire sale." Those negotiations fell through on May 4th, a deal never materialized, and the DNF team was sadly released a few days later.”

In regard to the lawsuit that is currently underway in New York, Broussard revealed, “While we cannot comment on the details of the ongoing lawsuit, we believe Take-Two's lawsuit is without merit and merely a bully tactic to obtain ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. We will vigorously defend ourselves against this publisher.”

So it seems that the curse of Duke Nukem Forever will expand to the lawsuit, not only to the game. We will keep you updated with the proceedings between the two companies and as regards the game.