Game news This video game, unfairly banned from Steam and which has caused a lot of talk, finally wins its first victory!
This long-heralded game, which then completely disappeared from the radar due to a legal attack, is coming back to the forefront. This is the story of Dark and Darker, developed by Ironmace.
A game that promises gold
Announced by the Ironmace studio, Dark and Darker is a battle royale released for over a year now. The game is a concentration of inspirations that fit together perfectly. With PvPvE content, numerous character classes and battles against scary monsters, all in an increasingly shrinking area; in short, a real Fortnite with Dungeon-RPG sauce. But we find other inspirations there, still as well implemented, such as roguelike dungeons and a DayZ-style multiplayer mode. But now, a few months ago, the title was removed from the Steam catalog, although early access was planned for August 7, 2023. The reason? An accusation of plagiarism, launched by the competing studio Nexon.
A case of plagiarism
Indeed, while the title was doing well, the South Korean company Nexon claimed that Ironmace had plagiarized them. As a reminder, Nexon had been working for some time on a project called P3, which ultimately never came to fruition. In August 2021, the company fired the project team leader who joined Ironmace with a handful of his former colleagues. From this premise, Nexon launched allegations against the studio, claiming that the initial project was copyrighted. But on March 26, 2023, the game finally titled Dark and Dark is removed from Steam, two days after Nexon filed a notice of cessation in order to surprise the development of the title. But against all expectations, the injunction filed by Nexon against its competitor was rejected by the American courts.
It is still too early to know if Dark and Dark will make its return to Steam, but one thing is certain: it’s a big victory for Ironmace. However, the studio does not want to stop there, wanting to fully resolve the “injustice” they have been victims of. “If a sufficient and thorough investigation of the evidence is conducted in the main trial, the truth about the injustice of Nexon’s claims and the innocence of IRONMACE will be revealed”. The outcome of this story is not ready to arrive, hoping that the game can return to Steam very quickly. To be continued.