When asked to confirm a Wednesday report in the Dallas Business Journal that said Duke Nukem Forever had been "confirmed" for late 2008, 3D Realms president Miller was frank in an e-mail to Next-Gen.
"Quite simply, they are lying *******s and they know it," he wrote.
The Dallas Business Journal has since updated its original story, saying that a 2008 Duke Nukem Forever release is "possible," steering away from anything certain.
Miller didn't comment on an Xbox Live Arcade release of the classic Duke Nukem from 1996, which has been rumored for months.
3D Realms' George Broussard elaborated on the Dallas Business Journal's reporting in a post on the developer's official forums.
"In what appears to be an unfortunate turn of events, there seems to have been some confusion between what was 'off the record' and what was not. I suppose we're used to dealing with gaming press and not mainstream press. Lesson learned.
"While we have internal targets, dates and goals, like every developer, we are not ready to share them. What's amazing about this is that the DBJ must have assumed that we'd actually announce a date to them, and not gaming press, and that even in the light of Scott's quote of "We can't make an official announcement.", the DBJ effectively did that. Lesson learned.
"The release date is still 'when it's done', and will be until the appropriate moment. Platforms have not been finalized or announced. You can rest assured that we are moving toward a goal and that the recently released teaser trailer is the start of that process and seeing more of the game, sooner than later.
"We apologize to gamers and websites everywhere for this series of events. Sometimes, you can be too trusting of people and assume things that come back to bite you. Lesson learned.
Someone's going to pay...