Nexon are suing Dark And Darker developers over copyright infringement from cuipeng202's blog

Publisher Nexon has filed a case against Ironmace Games, the developers behind the multiplayer looter Dark and Darker Gold, accusing the studio and a couple of individual developers of copyright infringement. The two Korean companies recently went public using dispute, the good news is their beef has extended towards the US legal system where Nexon is demanding an attempt by jury.

It’s an untidy situation, even so, the dispute ramped up recently when Dark And Darker was pulled from Steam following accusations of stolen trade secrets. Essentially, Ironmace’s founder (Terence Park) and also a developer (Ju-Hyun Choi) were both former Nexon devs who worked tirelessly on a similar fantasy game codenamed P3 in 2020-2021. Nexon accused Choi of stealing assets while still working with the company and claimed that Dark And Darker was designed with these stolen materials. Their DMCA letter led to your game’s Steam removal, and Ironmace quickly responded on the Discord server, calling the claims “distorted.”

YouTuber Onepeg - who's been actively following extraction looter - purchased the lawsuit’s documents and uploaded a 30-minute video delving into your text. Nexon’s legal complaint is against Ironmace, Park, and Choi, often known as the “defendants” through the document.

Nexon again claims the “defendants stole P3 source code, audiovisual, as well as other materials that Nexon developed,” and allegedly used these materials to build up the “substantially similar” dark and darker gold coins. Now Nexon is searching for monetary compensation for your costs that went into P3’s development, but they’re also trying to halt the growth and distribution of Ironmace’s game.

The document continues, “Condoning the Defendants’ conduct would threaten Nexon, it's game industry, causing all of the consumers who enjoy playing sophisticated online games.” Onepeg’s video also shows side-by-side comparisons of similar monster designs alongside lots of other claims.

Nexon also states that their Employment Agreement incorporates a “one-year non-compete clause that prevents the staff from doing work in the same profession that could potentially infringe on Nexon’s trade secrets, without Nexon’s prior consent.” Ironmace hasn’t responded to your lawsuit yet.

Since its removal from Steam, the studio has continued development as Dark And Darker’s fifth public playtest was already released, unconventionally, via a torrent link. Its previous playtests found popularity on Steam and Twitch - Alice0 played a type of playtest in December and discovered it to be a unique take on Escape From Tarkov’s extraction-based PvPvE.