Legal Niches

Court Filing: 2KGames Developing "Duke Begins"

By gamepolitics

Digging deeper into a court document filed on Friday by Duke Nukem developer Apogee Software reveals that - at least according to Apogee's attorneys - 2K Games is creating a new Duke Nukem property with the working title Duke Begins.

The following passage appears in Apogee's response to a suit filed against it last month by publisher Take-Two Interactive:

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...

 

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...

 

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.

DOCUMENT DUMP: Read Apogee's court filing here (20-page pdf).

UPDATE: GP spoke with a Take-Two representative who declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on June 22, 2009 (boomark / email).