“When it’s done” apparently wasn’t fast enough. Yesterday, Joe Siegler of 3D Realms confirmed through a one-line forum post that this is not a marketing stunt: the development company behind Wolfenstien, and the Duke Nukem franchise has closed its doors for good.

At the time of this writing, the official 3D Realms forum is straining under the weight of some understandably heavy traffic in a single thread that is eight hours old and 12 pages deep. It’s here, on page four of this thread, where Siegler, the webmaster for 3D Realms, offered a short confirmation after another poster mentioned an interview Siegler had recorded just the day before.

“When I recorded that I didn’t know,” Siegler said. “It’s not a marketing thing. It’s true. I have nothing further to say at this time.”

Finally, sister-developer Apogee Software and publisher Take-Two Interactive offered updates on their involvement and how the companies were affected.

“We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Alan Lewis,Take-Two’s VP of communications, "In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever."

Apogee, who is developing the latest Duke Nukem games for the DS and PSP systems, had even less to say, but confirmed that the upcoming handheld titles will continue on schedule.

“Deep Silver and Apogee Software are not affected by the situation at 3D Realms,” a representative told a reporter from Shack News.

Though it has not been confirmed, forum-goers on both 3D Realms and Quarter-To-Three claiming inside connections are citing a combination of design-team mismanagement and a lack of "milestone" accountability due to in-house funding. At this time, we are unaware of any further remarks by any 3D Realms staff member.

3D Realms was started originally as Apogee Software in 1987. The “Apogee” moniker had been dropped in 1996, and recently licensed to a separate company registered as “Apogee Software LLC.” 3D Realms was owned by Scott Miller and George Broussard, both of whom were still in control of the studio at the time of closure.