Dark and Darker developer Ironmace has been raided by police after industry giant Nexon was accused of stealing assets, South Korean news outlet Korea JoongAng Daily reported.
The raid reportedly took place at the Ironmace development office in the south of the city, and resulted in the confiscation of game-related materials by local police. Ironmace has yet to issue an official statement on the incidents.
The feud between Nexon and Ironmace dates back to 2021, when the South Korean industry giant accused a current member of Ironmace’s development team (Leader A for short) of leaking assets from a project called P3. They were later fired in July 2021 for leaking P3 data before joining the Ironmace team.
In a notice to employees, Nexon’s legal team apparently issued the following statement to employees on Wednesday: “We confirm that Leader A, then the P3 project team leader, leaked thousands of files, including source code and builds, mainly related to project development, to an external server they own,”
“We also found that leader A suggested to his teammates in the P3 project to quit the company and jointly develop a game similar to P3 on the grounds of external investment sources and so on.”
Previously, the developers from Ironmace denied any and all allegations of stolen assets or code, writing on their Discord server: “I would like to address certain rumors that have started to circulate and reassure Dark and Darker fans Absolutely no stolen assets or code were used to make our games.”
“Our code is built from the ground up. Most of our assets are purchased from the Unreal Marketplace. All other assets and all game design documents are created in-house. This has been audited by an external agency. To the best of our knowledge , you can’t for a game type.”
“With regards to this lawsuit, we believe this is a separate personal issue raised by one of our team members. No lawsuit has been filed against Ironmace. Regardless, we believe in our teammates and we look forward to addressing their personal issues.”
The crux of the matter seems to be this: If the police can find data or company information that proves that Dark and Darker did use assets or code extracted from something Nexon made, then Ironmace’s developers are in trouble. However, according to Dark and Dark Discord admin Graysun, “The police did come to check. It was a quick process and nothing was found.” If true, Ironmace appears to be OK for now.
Dark and Dark retains its planned April Early Access release, with a full release planned for late 2023
If you’re excited about Dark and Darker’s return, check out our list of Dark and Darker tiers, as well as our guide to the best Dark and Darker solo lessons.
