I think it's 3D Realms no one is going to want to work with. 3DR sold all of the Duke Nukem IP rights to Gearbox, and then they tried to licence Duke to another developer to make a new game. You can't sell an IP and then try to keep using and making money from it. That'd be like Epic trying to licence out GoW after they sold the IP to Microsoft. It seems especially crummy since Gearbox kind of took a bullet for 3DR by buying Duke and releasing Forever.
As you note there is at least actual legal justification for Gearbox escalating the case with 3D Realms; nevertheless, the issue with having twodifferent legal issues escalated from Gearbox's end over the last few months will likely damage their finances and future publishing deals. They'll likely be compounding the legal fees incurred on their part between the case against 3D Realms in addition to whatever they're trying to pull on SEGA regarding the class action lawsuit. I would be surprised if they ever work with SEGA again after this, either, and it may extend to discourage other publishers as well.
I also highly doubt 3D Realms would've even been able to generate much revenue from whatever they're working with in the first place, let alone even finish developing it. I mean it was supposed to be an isometric shooter.
Oh, weird. The new game was being developed by the people who did the new Rise of the Triad game, so I just assumed it would be another classic-styled FPS. A Duke Nukem isometric action RPG is definitely not what I would have expected. I do see your point though. It was probably not the best choice to buy that IP to begin with. It's not like people are excited to see what Gearbox might do next with Duke. That is, unless they actually decide to make that game people want where Duke has to come to terms with being a relic in a world that's grown up.
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