3D Realms, a Texas based video game developer abruptly ‘closed its doors’ in the middle of last week apparently stopping more than a decades worth of development on the popular video game ‘Duke Nuke Em’ Forever’.  The video game title is legendary among gamers and is one of the most anticipated releases in the gaming community in some time.  3D Realms announced with no warning at all they were shutting down, sort of.   3D realms hasn’t put out any official press releases or any other announcements.  The developer has only made a post on their message boards.

The day before it was made public that 3D Realms would be shutting down, a new website was registered.  The site that sparked it all was savedukenukem.com.  How in the world could a man by the name of Jeff Shenk, a 38 year-old web consultant who is associated with a small PR firm be privy to this ‘inside information’.  Jeff Shenk resides in Danville California, a long way from 3D Realms in Garland Texas!

Recent developments show that parents company Take-Two is filing a lawsuit against Apogee Sofware, which is the corporate title for 3D Realms.  Despite 3D Realms having definitive proof that Duke Nukem Forever was in progress, the studios’ unfortunate recent closure means that publisher Take-Two will lose all the capital that they invested into the project after accepting publisher rights. As noted on Shack News, Take-Two laid down US$12 million to the game’s original publisher, Infogrames, for the rights to Duke Nukem Forever in 2000.  (Computer World)

The question still remains…

Who are you Jeff Shenk???