The controversy around Dark and DarkerAn MMO accused of stealing not only assets but also personnel from Korean publisher Nexon escalated over the weekend the game was removed from Steam.
As we reported earlier, Dark and Darker— a fantasy MMO so called It’ll be in Early Access in April—it’s being developed by Ironmace, a team of mostly former Nexon employees, and is of the same genre. P3It’s a title that many worked on (and has since been canceled) at Nexon before the ship jumped.
In conclusion, A few weeks ago, Nexon filed a complaint and the police raided Ironmace’s office.:
Nexon’s lawyers say Dark and Darker has striking similarities. P3 in the big game, rules and arts that cannot be played independently” and as a result of the alleged theft that their own games “did not see the light of day due to the unethical actions of their former colleagues”.
After this raid, Nexon, Dark and Darkercaused the game to be removed from Steam. Request, opened to the public heresays:
Nexon has learned that IRONMACE Co., Ltd. (“Ironmace”) has made unauthorized use of Nexon’s trade secrets and copyrighted materials as detailed below. This letter is to notify you of Ironmace’s misappropriation and copyright infringement of Nexon’s trade secrets and to request that Valve remove all versions of Dark and Darker from Steam.
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In response to delistingIronmace made the following statement about the game’s Discord:
All our fans have recently been served a cease and desist letter and DMCA takedown from Nexon regarding Dark and Darker based on distorted claims. We are currently working with our legal team to resolve this issue as best as possible. Due to the sensitive legal nature of this issue, we must be mindful of our statements so as not to jeopardize our position. We ask for your understanding as we work to restore the game as quickly as possible. Please know that we will do our best for our fans. Thanks!
followed this a longer explanationAddressing certain claims by Nexon (for example, developers working from home access Nexon servers and Darkness and Darkness P3’s story) and ending with this:
Given the information presented, it is hard to believe that Nexon could reasonably believe in good faith that Ironmace was infringing on its copyrights for its own sake. P3 project. In addition, Ironmace’s trade secret information of Nexon, Dark and Darker, base it on circumstantial claims instead. Finally, they accuse Ironmace of blatantly violating Valve’s SSA and SOCR, restricting our ability to deliver our game to gamers on the largest mainstream PC gaming platform, and severely hampering our ability to do business. Ironmace demands that Nexon drop its baseless allegations. If they want to compete on merit, we welcome Nexon’s immediate adjustment to the police and comparison of source code, proprietary assets, and design documents to quickly and decisively put an end to this issue.
