Just days after the 3D Realms team bowed out and gave their goodbyes, days after the developer’s twelve-year attempt to finish Duke Nukem Forever ended abruptly, the Texas outfit has made a stunning revelation: 3D Realms has not closed down.

In a statement released to the press, 3D Realms has assured that it is continuing as studio, albeit a “much smaller” one. The company also claims that it retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise, and will continue to license and co-create games based upon its famous character.

However, 3D Realms has confirmed that Duke Nukem Forever’s production has ceased.

Now the group is fighting a pending lawsuit from publisher Take-Two on accusations of breach of contract. Take-Two claims to have paid $12 million for the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever, and is attempting to sue 3D Realms for “continually delay[ing] the completion date for Duke Nukem Forever."

3D Realms is resisting those accusations. It claims that Take-Two “never paid advances or any signing bonus or any other funds related to Duke Nukem Forever” until July 2008, when the publisher then paid $2.5 million to the developer “in connection with another agreement for an unannounced game.”

“Take-Two claims that they paid $12 million to GT Interactive/Infogrames to acquire the publishing rights for the Duke Nukem Forever game. To be clear, 3D Realms was not a party to that transaction and did not receive any money from it,” read the statement.

3D Realms claims that when Duke Nukem Forever was originally signed up with publisher GT Interactive in 1998, the developer was given a $400,000 signing-up bonus.

“Up until July 2008, this was the only publisher money we received for the Duke Nukem Forever game,” read the statement.

3D Realms also claims that it had accumulatively invested over $20 million into the production of Duke Nukem Forever.

The statement also explained that 3D Realms "retains certain rights to sell [Duke Nukem Forever] directly to the public," despite Take-Two previously confirming that it retains publishing rights for the game.

The statement directly slammed Take-Two’s pending lawsuit as a “bully tactic” to claim ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise.

“We will vigorously defend ourselves against this publisher," read the statement.