Dark and Darker was a tough dungeon title containing PvPvE aspects not dissimilar to those found in Escape From Tarkov’s gameplay. A few weeks ago, it was announced that the game had been pulled from Steam due to a DMCA lawsuit. It was believed that the game’s creator, IRONMACE, had stolen code from Nexon, another development studio many of IRONMACE’s former employees had previously called home.
After the authorities raided IRONMACE’s premises in South Korea, DMCA strikes were issued against the company, and Steam immediately removed all traces of the game. In the most recent news, it was disclosed that Nexon has formally filed a lawsuit against IRONMACE, claiming that the latter violated Nexon’s copyright and breached their contract.
However, this is not the end of the story.
Prepare Yourselves, Because This Is Going to Get Wild!
After the in-development game was removed from Steam’s servers in its entirety, IRONMACE resorted to torrents to continue distributing the most recent version of its game, Dark and Darker. IRONMACE has not wavered in its commitment to fulfilling its contractual obligations to provide highly awaited gamers worldwide with the playtests it promised. This is despite Nexon’s legal assault on the Korean developer.
Before that, at the beginning of the month, someone identifying themselves as a developer for Dark and Darker decided to launch an ambitious GoFundMe campaign to raise 500,000 dollars to help the legal struggle against Nexon. Before it was established beyond a reasonable doubt that it was genuine, it was widely believed to be a massive con.
It has been reported that the GoFundMe campaign reached its goal of $46,000 in donations in just over an hour before being yanked offline for an unknown reason. In the end, IRONMACE confirmed that one of their workers had started the campaign without permission, although having good motives behind their actions.
Now, IRONMACE is facing yet another chapter in the ongoing legal conflict. Nexon has taken the next step and officially filed a lawsuit against the company, citing a breach of contract as the basis for the action. According to a report published by Eurogamer, the ten or so employees who had moved over to IRONMACE from Nexon had signed a ‘one-year-non-compete-agreement’ that stopped them from potentially infringing on Nexon’s treasured trade secrets without Nexon’s prior consent. This provision required them to refrain from competing with Nexon for one year.
Regarding the infringement of copyright, which is the fundamental reason for the case, Nexon has claimed that IRONMACE copied parts from the former’s title, P3, to use in Dark and Darker. This claim is the primary basis for the complaint. There was a discussion of a belt that carried luminous potion bottles and a mechanism used to open chests within the game.
In the end, Nexon has asked that IRONMACE discontinue production of Dark and Darker and pay for any losses that may have been incurred due to Nexon’s actions — regardless of what those damages may be.
IRONMACE will undoubtedly go out with a bang, even though the game has seen considerable success in recent months.