3DRealms bites the big one

[A Black Falcon]

Update 3: 3D Realms webmaster Joe Siegler has commented on the shut down, stating: "It's not a marketing thing. It's true. I have nothing further to say at this time."

Siegler's post also reflects the unexpected nature of the situation, as he was unaware of the impending shut down during an interview conducted yesterday afternoon.

Update 2: Duke Nukem Forever publisher Take-Two has confirmed to Shacknews that it was not funding ongoing development of the 3D Realms project.

"We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis in a prepared statement.

"In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever," he added.

Very strange stuff... what the heck happened here? 3DRealms was self-funding the game, so Take Two has nothing to do with this. So um... yeah, we have no idea why their funding suddenly disappeared. Very, very sad, of course (I love Apogee...), but strange...

Oh, and that first update confirmed that the initial report that the new Apogree and those DS/PSP Duke Nukem games aren't affected by this. So they can still fund that, but not the main company? Or was that already funded, so that's why it wasn't affected? It's being done by an external developer of course, but published by Apogee, a subsidiary of Apogee, aka 3DRealms... so yeah, odd.