The controversy about Dark and darkeran MMO accused of stealing not only assets but also employees from Korean publisher Nexon escalated over the weekend when the game was removed from Steam.
As we have already reported, Dark and darker– a fantasy MMO that was allegedly Going into Early Access April – is being developed by Ironmace, a team of mostly former Nexon employees, and belongs to the same genre as P3a title many of them had been working on at Nexon (and have since discontinued) before they left ship.
As a result, A few weeks ago, Nexon complained and the police raided Ironmace’s office:
That’s what Nexon’s lawyers say Dark and darker has “striking similarities with the concept for P3
in great gameplay, rules and arts that could not have been made independently” and that as a result of the alleged theft their own game “could not see the light of day due to unethical actions of former colleagues”.
Following this raid, Nexon filed a DMCA strike Dark and darker, resulting in the game being removed from Steam. The request, made public heresays:
Nexon has learned that IRONMACE Co.,Ltd. (“Ironmace”) makes any unauthorized use of Nexon’s trade secrets and proprietary materials as described below. This letter is to inform you of Ironmace’s misconduct, which constitutes misappropriation of Nexon’s trade secrets and copyright infringement, and request that Valve remove all versions of Dark and Darker from Steam.
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In response to the delistingIronmace issued a statement on the game’s Discord stating:
To all of our fans, we have recently been served with 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 we can. Due to the sensitive legal nature of this topic, we have to be careful with our statements so as not to jeopardize our position. We ask for your understanding while we work to get the game back up and running as soon as possible. Please note that we will do everything we can for our fans. Thanks!
That followed a longer explanationwhich addresses Nexon’s specific allegations (such as access to Nexon’s servers by developers working from home and the similarities of Dark and darker
Given the information presented, it’s hard to believe that Nexon could, in good faith, reasonably believe that Ironmace infringed their copyrights P3 project. They also provide no actual evidence that Ironmace misused Nexon trade secrets in creating Nexon Dark and darker, but based on circumstantial claims. Finally, they are accusing Ironmace of a blatant violation of Valve’s SSA and SOCR, which limits our ability to offer our game to players on the largest mainstream PC gaming platform and seriously hinders our ability to do business. Ironmace is asking Nexon to renounce their unsubstantiated claims. If they wish to compete on merit, we welcome Nexon to facilitate comparison of source code, custom assets and design documents promptly with the police to put a swift and decisive end to this matter.
