Even after some four years, Ironmace’s legal troubles are still dragging on.
Inmessages to fans on their Discord server and onX,Dark and Darkerdeveloper Ironmace announced that the game has been delisted from the Epic Games Storeagain.
The delisting is seemingly related to the ongoing legal battle between the Korean developer and the publisherNexon, which began back in 2023, before the PvPvE fantasy extraction game even released.
That’s Ironmace’s assumption, at least; the reasons still aren’t completely clear, even to them.
Years Of Legal Issues
Dark and Darker’s legal issues came to a head back in March 2023 when itwas removed from online storefronts for the first timefollowing a DMCA takedown notice from Nexon.
Earlier that month, Ironmace was raided by South Korean police based on allegations from Nexon that the game was developed using stolen assets and staff after the leader of a project known as “P3” leaked assets, leading to them being fired back in 2021.
Nexon alleged that this former lead poached some of their teammates to develop a game similar to project P3 – which they believe is Dark and Darker.
The legal battle went on over the course of 2023 – including astrange, short-lived GoFundMeto raise funds for their legal defense, which theylater offered to refund– until it was eventually reinstated, aftercalls from Ironmace for Steam to reject Nexon’s claims.
Dark And Darker Non-Steam Launch Plagued With Payment And Server Issues
The studio is still struggling to get the game back on Steam.
According toKorea JoongAng Daily, South Korean courts ruled last month that Ironmace did not infringe on Nexon’s copyright, but stillordered them to pay 8.5 billion won ($5.86 million) in damagesfor stealing trade secrets and leaking company data.
At the time, Nexon pledged to appeal the dismissal of their copyright claim.
Dark and Darker is still available on Steam, where it has since gone free-to-play, aftera bizarre wave of review bombing back in January.
The Legendary Status upgrade,which was free for 24 hours back in December, is still available for purchase on the Epic Games Store at time of writing, suggesting that its removal from that storefront has not been complete.
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