2K was working on Duke Begins

Court filings reveal 2K Games was working on a Duke Nukem game dubbed Duke Begins. Publisher Take-Two gained the right to develop this game in an effort to recoup funding that was put into the Duke Nukem Forever project. Duke Begins was supposed to be finished by mid-2009, but unfortunately the game was suspended in April 2009.

Apogee Software, the parent company of developer 3D Realms, has revealed that publisher Take-Two had a second Duke Nukem game in development at the same time as Duke Nukem Forever, dubbed Duke Begins.

Set to be published under the 2K Games label, Duke Begins was to be finished by mid-2010 and though a developer hasn't been named Apogee has said that it would have been handed to a very well-known team. Unfortunately though, according to paperwork obtained by Voodoo Extreme, development of Duke Begins was suspended in April 2009.

The documents also unveil 3D Realms poured $20 million of private funding into the development of DNF, on top of the roughly $12 million provided by Take-Two. 3D Realms also claims it's still working on Duke Nukem Forever even though nearly all staff have been laid off. Take-Two claims this is only possible because 3D Realms has a substantial amount of money hidden away in off-shore bank accounts.