3D Realms drops Duke Nukem Forever royalties suit against Gearbox

3D Realms has dropped its suit against Gearbox for unpaid royalties from Duke Nukem Forever. The former issued a statement (via Game Informer) absolving the latter of all blame, with a personal apology from founder and CEO Scott Miller.

3D Realms claimed Gearbox failed to pay more than $2 million in royalties after Gearbox bought the rights to Duke Nukem Forever, which had been delayed and rebooted for more than a decade. It also claimed Gearbox blocked attempts at an independent audit of the royalties in question.

Now it seems the vaporware-turned-critical-and-commercial-flop can recede into the history books and stay there this time.

"In all sincerity, we regret the misunderstanding that instigated our lawsuit," Miller wrote. "Now that we better understand--and appreciate--the actual nature of our business matters, we have voluntarily withdrawn our claims against Gearbox, with genuine apologies to [Gearbox president and CEO] Randy [Pitchford] for any damage that our lawsuit may have caused to the relationship."

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.