The dispute over Dark and Darker on Steam is entering the next round.
The drama surrounding Dark and Darker continues. After the South Korean publisher Nexon raised serious allegations against the indie studio Ironmace, Valve removed the fantasy game from the shop. Now Ironmace is contacting the Steam operator through a lawyer and demanding the reinstatement.
We summarize what happened recently in the case. If you need an overview of the previous events or want to refresh your knowledge, here’s the short version of Dark & Darker vs. Nexon.
This is what Ironmace demands from Valve
Nexon filed a lawsuit against Ironmace in South Korea alleging the studio stole ideas, concepts and assets from a project called P3 that current Ironmace employees used to work on. This even led to a raid, but according to Ironmace, nothing was found. In addition, a so-called takedown notice ensured that Valve removed the game from the Steam shop.
Dark and Darker – View screenshots
Now Ironmace is reaching out to Valve through a lawyer to bring the fantasy game reminiscent of Escape from Tarkov and Hunt Showdown back to Steam. In the letter that GamesRadar is available, he describes the allegations as unfounded:
The Takedown Notice is based on completely unsubstantiated allegations and knowingly misrepresents that Dark and Darker infringe Nexon’s copyrights.
The allegations are nothing more than anti-competitive harassment aimed at putting a small indie studio out of business
.
Furthermore, the allegations relate to a hypothetical game that Nexon never produced and therefore Does not exist
.
The trailer shows how Dark and Darker looks and plays:
2:06
Dark and Darker: The gloomy PvP dungeon crawler explains its gameplay in the trailer
Ironmace’s lawyer further argues that the publisher’s reasoning is legally flawed:
Nexon claims to have developed “unique concepts, genres, plots, storylines, characters and plans for the game” – almost none of which is copyrighted. While the actual development of the plot, storyline, and characters may certainly be worthy of protection, copyright does not protect concepts.
He concludes his argument by saying: At best, Nexon took a handful of non-protectable elements and cobbled them together to create the illusion of copyright infringement.
Therefore, on behalf of Ironmace, he appeals to Valve to bring Dark and Darker back into the Steam shop. Whether it comes to that or whether the drama continues, only time will tell. But it seems as if the dispute has not yet come to an end.
You can find more of one of the best extraction shooters in the articles above. Meanwhile, Hunt Showdown has been able to maneuver its way unerringly into the favorite games of the GameStar editors.
The young genre could still use new blood. Dark and Darker was very well received even before release and reached a large audience. Let’s hope that the argument will end positively for us players.
