I'm no lawyer, but it seems as though the Duke Nukem Forever legal mess is over. 3D Realms and Take-Two have filed to dismiss litigation "with prejudice," according to court documents Shacknews has obtained, meaning neither party can sue with the same claims again. Whew.
How did this legal brouhaha start? Shack has been on the case of the case for a while now (though nowhere near as long as 3D Realms has spent developing DNF buh-dum-bum), following the drama from its unfortunate beginnings in May 2009, the month 3D Realms handed out pink slips to staff that were crafting DNF. The litigation kicked off in June, when Take-Two got real and sued 3D Realms assuming that DNF was, you know, cancelled as a result of the missing staff. This action prompted 3D Realms to get their sue on. And it did; 3D Realms counter-sued Take-Two, alleging that work was still being done on DNF.
Do you need some Duke, like, soon? You're in luck. An Xbox Live Arcade port of the Manhattan Project is due out June 23 for 800 Microsoft Points. It's also possible that another Duke game, a prequel game called Duke Begins, could still be a thing that happens soon-ish...but nothing public has ever been uttered about the supposed Gearbox-developed title. Surely, something would have been by now if it was still slated.