Did Gearbox secretly sell the Duke Nukem IP?
#1 Posted 04 May 2018 - 11:48 AM
This article states that Balls of Steel LLC is registered at the same address as Gearbox.
So what's the deal? Did Randy actually found another company and transfer the Duke Nukem rights to it? Is it a way for Randy to tell the fans "Sorry, Gearbox doesn't have the right to distribute the original Duke Nukem games / the 2001 version of DNF" without actually lying?
#2 Posted 04 May 2018 - 12:06 PM
#3 Posted 04 May 2018 - 12:06 PM
#4 Posted 04 May 2018 - 04:30 PM
#5 Posted 04 May 2018 - 04:53 PM
Hendricks266, on 04 May 2018 - 12:06 PM, said:
I seem to be severely out of the loop. What is this?
As to the OP... setting up a shell is more or less modus operandi and as much as I love Duke were I to own the IP I would certainly want a shell between the IP and me.
Gearbox wanting a Duke shell within the Gearbox shell makes perfectly normal sense given the way the rules are set.
#6 Posted 04 May 2018 - 05:10 PM
Hendricks266, on 04 May 2018 - 12:06 PM, said:
I must be out of the loop. What's been going on?
#7 Posted 04 May 2018 - 05:53 PM
Ninety-Six, on 04 May 2018 - 05:10 PM, said:
You and me both.
#8 Posted 04 May 2018 - 07:40 PM
Hendricks266, on 04 May 2018 - 12:06 PM, said:
HTTKC
Hendricks266, on 04 May 2018 - 12:06 PM, said:
Megaton
Hendricks266, on 04 May 2018 - 12:06 PM, said:
Read the whole article.
#9 Posted 04 May 2018 - 10:57 PM
Hendricks266, on 04 May 2018 - 07:40 PM, said:
Ahh... accusations about 20 years ago. The shuffling off Hornback describes was definitely awkward from every single direction.
The business issues (percentages, etc) sound like the sort of thing that were all the documents on the public table everyone would agree the documents "state clearly" but everyone would also go "yeah that's kinda shitty". For better and worse... the documents have to state clearly and when they don't... you're gonna have a bad time. I don't run a business specifically because I reached a point in my potential development at a certain Dallas Mafia Company where I formally accepted I didn't abandon all the other computer science paths in front of me to live a life caring about my ability to meet payroll for my friends. I would have followed an entirely different path were that the case.
However it does mean I'm forever in a position of handing over/trusting other folks to manage that aspect of making game development skills employable at all. If you get my awkward drift.
This post has been edited by JumpJaneJump: 04 May 2018 - 11:36 PM
#10 Posted 04 May 2018 - 11:09 PM
#11 Posted 04 May 2018 - 11:15 PM
#12 Posted 05 May 2018 - 10:20 AM
stumppy84, on 04 May 2018 - 04:30 PM, said:
I checked, an LLC is not allowed for Canadian Business people. If you are the sole owner of a business, you need to form a Sole Proprietorship, or pay the little extra and make it a normal business.
And so far, the laws in the US about the statue of an LLC varies from State to State. So it may be the thing to do right now, but laws can change. What may look smart now may turn out to burn you later.
This post has been edited by Hank: 05 May 2018 - 10:23 AM
#13 Posted 05 May 2018 - 03:05 PM
#14 Posted 06 May 2018 - 04:08 PM
#15 Posted 06 May 2018 - 06:47 PM
Ninety-Six, on 06 May 2018 - 04:08 PM, said:
I think we can all agree that Duke would work well in a dlc for Doom.
#16 Posted 06 May 2018 - 09:32 PM
Never Forgotten, on 06 May 2018 - 06:47 PM, said:
I would love to pay for the Duke 3D weapons to be ported to the most recent Doom.
#17 Posted 07 May 2018 - 06:25 AM
Never Forgotten, on 06 May 2018 - 06:47 PM, said:
Actually that would be the one place he would fit. Therefore it's the least likely to happen.
#18 Posted 09 May 2018 - 05:01 AM
#19 Posted 09 May 2018 - 05:21 AM
#20 Posted 09 May 2018 - 06:49 AM
Tea Monster, on 09 May 2018 - 05:01 AM, said:
Duke always did strike me as more of a combat pragmatist. Even in DNF he didn't really do more than was required to kill something, including the executions (most of the "flair" come from desecrating the corpse in most games). So I agree; he probably wouldn't be ripping and tearing with that special brand of brutality the Slayer brings.
That being said I wonder what he would do instead.
#22 Posted 13 May 2018 - 03:51 AM
HulkNukem, on 12 May 2018 - 07:54 PM, said:
I still think it was an awful idea. What made Duke great wasn't his backstory. It's not interesting, and not good material for a game.
#23 Posted 14 May 2018 - 02:09 AM
On the LLC thing, you can most commonly see this kind of thing in movies, here's a typical one;
In this case {Film company}-{Name of movie} Limited was registered as a separate entity. Some books also have the same type of corporate legal gymnastics on their first pages.
This post has been edited by High Treason: 14 May 2018 - 02:10 AM