According to the remaining executives over at 3D Realms, they are insisting that their studio is not closing, but regrouping and becoming a “much smaller studio“. It was reported by pretty much every video game blog/website that the company, which was founded in 1987 was shutting its doors for good because Take-Two was no longer funding the studio.

“Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing,” read in a statement. “3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6th, while we regroup as a company. While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.”

Last week, Take-Two announced what they ‘thought’ was a defunct company owed the publisher money, which was reported as high as $12 million because of cash that was supposedly given to 3D Realms to complete the infamous Duke Nukem Forever. However, 3D Realms seems to disagree with Take-Two, and has responded to the lawsuit:

“Take-Two never paid 3DR advances or any signing bonus or any other funds related to DNF, up until July 2008, at which time they paid $2.5m in connection with another agreement for an unannounced game,” it read. “This is the sum total Take-Two has paid 3DR in connection with DNF.”

Just last week, 3D Realms all but confirmed that the studio was closing because of a post on their website. The post had a picture (above) of the employees of the studio and up top read “goodbye”, and a quick snippet was written suggesting that 3D Realms had indeed closed forever: “Thanks for being fans and for all your support.”

source: Shacknews