Say what you will about 3D Realms, but you have to admit, a news story about them is never boring.
The company is currently embroiled in a lawsuit With Gearbox Software over the rights to the Duke Nukem franchise. Specifically, whether or not it was legal for 3D Realms to license the franchise rights to Interceptor Entertainment to produce Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, an action RPG rumored to be in development for the PC and PS4. Now comes the news that Interceptor’s parent company, SDN Invest, has purchased 3D Realms.
“3D Realms has always been a defining part the PC games industry.” said Frederik Schreiber, CEO of Interceptor Entertainment. “Getting 3D Realms under our wings is a huge step for us and we are extremely excited about the acquisition.”
The question is, what exactly did Interceptor/SDN Invest buy? Over the years, 3D Realms has sold off the majority of their properties including the aforementioned Duke Nukem, Prey (now owned by Bethesda), and Rise of the Triad (now owned by Apogee Software). 3D Realms does still own the distribution rights to many of their past successes including Duke Nukem 3D, the Commander Keen series, and Shadow Warrior, which was rebooted last year by Flying Wild Hog. Beyond that, there’s not much value in the 3D Realms name.
But then, Atari survived for years as a name that various publishers used to prop up their video game divisions, so you never know.
