In the intricate world of gaming, where creativity often clashes with controversy, the return of "Dark and Darker" to Steam stands as a triumphant victory against legal adversity.
It's almost a miracle that a game like Dark and Darker took so long to arrive. As a hybrid of a first-person dungeon crawler and a multiplayer RPG with a medieval fantasy setting, it found its way into the hearts of PvP enthusiasts.
At times, players could join forces in a Steam demo, taking on the roles of barbarians, rogues and wizards to engage in battles against monsters and other players. Following the typical Battle Royale format, the playable area gradually shrinks during a match, making encounters with other players unavoidable.
This fun came to an end when the developers announced that someone was taking legal action against them. Since then, Dark and Darker could only be purchased and played through the official website or Chafgames' subscription service. However, this could change soon.
A Court Reportedly Ruled That "Dark And Darker's Service Should Not Be Suspended"
Okay, when I mentioned "someone is taking legal action against them," I left out a lot. But I can't tell the whole story in the introduction, right?
The "someone" in this whole mess is the Korean video game company Nexon, responsible, for example, for the recently released The Finals. As fate would have it, they were once the employers of the team working on Dark and Darker, and they alleged that the Fantasy Battle Royale is based on a prototype developed at Nexon called P3.
Shortly thereafter, the game disappeared from Steam, and Ironmaze, the developers of Dark and Darker, released a brief statement on their Discord server. Of course, they denied any wrongdoing and announced their intention to address the issue as soon as possible.
This all happened in March 2023, and almost a year later, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.
On January 26, 2024, Ironmace released another statement on their Discord server. They announce that the court stated that Ironmace Games did not violate Nexon's copyright. Furthermore, Nexon failed to provide evidence that the code of a prototype called P3 was stolen. This is the translation of the Korean Discord posting:
Dear players,Yesterday, Nexon's preliminary injunction against Iron Mace for trade secret and copyright infringement was dismissed.The court ruled that “Iron Mace’s game cannot be viewed as infringing on Nexon’s copyright or trade secrets,” thus rejecting the claims and suspicions that Dark & Darker was developed by using Nexon’s trade secrets and infringing on its copyrights. It wasn't. In addition, the court ruled that Dark & Darker's service should not be suspended based on Nexon's claims and evidence alone.The court's decision regarding unfair competition is disappointing in that it came from a situation where Nexon did not even submit the P3 game itself as official evidence.However, this is due to the limitations of evidence examination in the provisional injunction procedure, and according to the provisional injunction decision, one of the reasons why the court dismissed Nexon's application for a provisional injunction was the need for a faithful investigation of evidence and hearing in the main lawsuit.If sufficient and thorough evidence is investigated in the main lawsuit, the truth about the unfairness of Nexon's claims and the innocence of Iron Mace will be revealed.Despite many difficulties, we were able to persevere thanks to the support and support of players around the world.We will continue to invest and do our best to develop Dark & Darker into a solid game that can be serviced for more than 10 years.I am always grateful to you all.
However, based on my rudimentary understanding from four semesters of law studies, it appears that the case of "unfair competition" is not yet closed as long as meaningful evidence cannot be examined. Nexon still owes this proof as of today and hasn't yet commented on the lawsuit. When Dark and Darker will return to Steam remains open. It's best not to pop the champagne corks too early.