Ramen4ever, on May 14 2009, 11:50 PM, said:
What do you think are the most possible outcomes of this lawsuit, msleeper?
Hard to say, I have almost no knowledge of corporate law much less any statistical data in terms of rulings, my little legal background isn't anything quite that serious. But if everyone wants to put their "totally unfounded theory" hat with me for a second, I can at least make sense of what the pages are, so let's begin. First, and most importantly, everyone really needs to stop humanizing this. Yes we all care about Duke and about the 3DR name, but this is the gritty inhospitable corporate world. All of that name and face and a decade of want and emotion doesn't mean squat when Corporate Entity A says that Corporate Entity B did something wrong and owes them X amount of dollars.
- Page one is crap, literally a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo. The only fact of interest is that the initial hearing is on June 4th. This is the first chance that 3DR / Apogee will have to get the case dismissed.
- Page two, three, and the last lines of page one is where the papers say that 3DR is not allowed to sell or distribute any copies of the game, and they have to cease any work on the game (laugh out loud), and deliver a copy of the data to the lawyers of both parties. This is so 3DR can't work on the game between now and the hearing (laugh out loud again) to alter the game in their favor by putting in extra work to make it look like it was further along than it was.
- Page four and five are crap, they're processing and filing forms.
- Page six is the lawyer saying that "yes this case is valid and that 3DR breached a contract with Take Two which cost them millions."
A completely positive result would be the legal entity of 3D Realms convincing a judge that they did not break their contract - whatever that may be - with Take Two, and the case would be thrown out after the hearing on June 4th. I think this is very very unlikely; Take Two said publicly that they never were in a financial contract with 3DR, so it was never their responsibility to help fund the game. A completely negative result - and to be quite honest, as much as it hurts to say this - a very likely outcome, is that the court rules in favor of Take Two at the hearing, and it will proceed to a full court case at some point later in time. At this point, nobody has won, but 3DR has lost the first battle.
So assuming it does pass at hearing, and it does go to a full case, then what? Well, we honestly won't know until that happens. I'm not totally certain if Take Two can specify "hey we want this, this and this" if the case goes in their favor at the end of it all. From how I understand it, if the case does go in Take Two's favor, then 3DR will owe Take Two whatever the court rules, and they'll have X amount of time to pay that debt. This puts 3DR in a really really tricky spot, because okay let's play pretend for a second. Take Two wins, and 3DR has 90 days to pay $30 million (made up number!). 3DR just went under a number of months ago at that point, so they probably don't have any money, so what do you do? Sell everything you can, is the likely answer!
Another very likely scenario is that the case will be resolved privately. You've heard that on the news, how a case between 2 companies is dismissed because they settled out of court. Frankly, I think this would be the best scenario. If you're George and you're facing a possibly $30 million bill (made up!), if you can convince Take Two to take some controling interest in your company rather than sell the farm, it's a win-kinda-win situation. Maybe, just maybe, 3DR gets the funding to finish the game, we get to see the "3D Realms" logo when we boot up the game... and then 3DR is enslaved to make X more Duke titles within Y amount of time, and Take Two gets Z percent of profits.
So who knows. I do want to point out that, worst case scenario, 3DR totally loses everything and they owe Take Two however much, that this does not necessarily mean that Take Two will suddenly absorb 3D Realms, or Duke Forever, or the Duke IP. At that point, which will be months down the road, a lot will be uncertain - and frankly, probably never publicly stated.
I do want to say this - The fact that the court is ordering the game files to transfer hands to Take Two has just increased the likelyhood of a leak tenfold, which is frankly pretty bad news for everyone. The people at 3DR poured their hearts, minds, souls and tears into making Duke Nukem Forever. Take Two didn't. That, more than anything, is what I am concerned about. A game leak could destroy everything, and as much as I want to play the game that I've been waiting around since I was 11 years old to be made, I would give up a hundred leaked versions, for a single "maybe" release.
The grim reality is that Take Two played it pretty smart here from a business perspective. I personally don't subscribe to the "5 million request / 30 million counter offer" everyone is aware of. Some of that just doesn't add up. But to at least be conservitive, we know that 3DR went to Take Two early in the year to show off the game. It's safe to bet that Take Two was not impressed, and assuming the 5 mil / 30 mil is a fabrication, it was a matter of time before 3DR was going to tank, and it would be fairly standard procedure for Take Two to pick up the pieces of it's investment.
But really, we don't know. We won't know anything until after June 4th. So please, for the love of god, stop with the conspiracy theories and the publicity stunt BS. People lost their jobs, and now this is going to court. Shit, as they say, just got real.