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There have been increasingly messy legal consequences to the abrupt implosion of 3D Realms and the apparent end of Duke Nukem Forever. Among them is the ongoing courtroom drama between 3D Realms and publisher Take-Two, which now brings to light what was to be a possible Xbox 360 edition.

According to court documents obtained by Shacknews, Take-Two "solicited" 3D Realms for an Xbox 360 edition of the game that came to symbolize vaporware in early 2009. In exchange, 3D Realms demanded that Take-Two "fully fund Apogee's reaching certain milestones."

This jives with previous reports, in which 3D Realms claimed that Take-Two "never paid 3DR advances or any signing bonus or any other funds related to DNF, up until July 2008, at which time they paid $2.5 million in connection with another agreement for an unannounced game."

Take-Two have said that they were reluctant to fully fund the game "in light of the extensive delays in development of the PC version," and that it offered to fund "half of the concurrent development costs" up through 3D Realms reaching the "Alpha Milestone." The remaining half was to be paid upon completion of the game.

Perhaps more bizarrely, Take-Two claims that "upon information and belief, [3D Realms] has title to a substantial amount of funds deposited in an off-shore account, which Take-Two believes Apogee can use to fund its outstanding obligations."

Meanwhile, 3D Realms says that Take-Two "materially changed the parameters of the proposed funding agreement" into something that they could not afford. Thus, they ended up rejecting the proposal.

According to 3D Realms founder Scott Miller, "Do readers here realize that filed lawsuits are entirely one-sided statements, based on knee-deep BS and with more spin that a top?"

"3DR has been in nearly a dozen lawsuits (including against Warner and Fox). We're always innocent, and we always win. This one is no exception. Give it a year, then the truth will come out."

And yet, for all of this, there's still a slight chance that Duke Nukem Forever will materialize in some form. For their part, 3D Realms remains alive, and retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. They only lack a development team. Take-Two also noted that "any future development of the console versions of Duke Nukem Forever" requires that 3D Realms "cooperate."

Based on the language of both sides though, it doesn't appear that'll be happening anytime soon.