Law. Law always changes, and it’s honestly a bit of a nightmare. Last Friday, Gearbox Software filed a suit against Apogee Software, the owners of Duke Nukem 3D developers* 3D Realms. Gearbox bought the Duke Nukem franchise off ’em back in 2010, and now they’re accusing 3D Realms of failing to mention that they didn’t own the copyright to some of the game’s music.
This follows Gearbox’s 2014 suit that (supposedly?) established their full ownership of the franchise, and is the result of another ongoing lawsuit by musician Bobby Prince against Gearbox (as well as Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford and Valve Software), where he’s claiming that he merely licensed his tracks to them rather than outright selling. Basically, Gearbox are trying to ensure they don’t suffer legal costs because of 3D Realms’ alleged cock-up. It is: messy.