Duke Nukem Creator Drops Lawsuit Against Gearbox

3D Realms has dropped its Duke Nukem Forever lawsuit against Gearbox for unpaid royalties and actually apologized for the “misunderstanding.”

3D Realms filed a lawsuit against Gearbox back in June, claiming that it was owed more than $2 million in royalty payments on Duke Nukem Forever. Gearbox, of course, denied the claim and went so far as to state that 3D Realms was “the only beneficiary of the deal,” noting that the disastrously-bad game cost Gearbox money and did harm to its credibility.

And now, in a surprising twist, 3D Realms has very suddenly dropped the suit and actually admitted that it was wrong to file it in the first place. “After reviewing evidence regarding our business affairs, and without any money exchanging hands, we have satisfactorily resolved any and all differences that we perceived against Gearbox,” co-founder Scott Miller wrote in an email sent to Kotaku. “In all sincerity, we regret the misunderstanding that instigated our lawsuit. Now that we better understand – and appreciate – the actual nature of our business matters, we have voluntarily withdrawn our claims against Gearbox, with genuine apologies to Randy for any damage that our lawsuit may have caused to the relationship.”

That’s not the sort of thing you hear every day, eh? I do have to wonder how any respectable company could file a multi-million-dollar lawsuit without “understanding the actual nature of its business matters,” but I’m not a high-flying game development executive, so I probably just don’t know how these things work. In any event, I guess that’s that. Onward to the sequel!

Source: Kotaku