A court has ruled on the allegations that led to the surprise hit Dark and Darker disappearing from Steam in 2023.
What is Dark and Darker? Dark and Darker is a dungeon crawler with a PvP focus and is set in a medieval fantasy environment. Alongside magic and sorcery, you can use swords and shields as well as ranged weapons like a crossbow. The gameplay is reminiscent of extraction shooters like Escape from Tarkov – albeit without the shooter gameplay. Within a match, you fight in teams of three for loot. If you die in an ongoing round, you lose your loot.
Dark and Darker had already undergone several playtests that excited thousands of players before the dungeon crawler disappeared from Steam in March 2023 due to serious allegations from a competitor.
Gaming giant raised plagiarism allegations
What were the allegations? Ironmace, the development studio behind Dark and Darker, was fighting a cease-and-desist order and a DMCA takedown from the South Korean development studio and publisher Nexon.
Nexon is primarily known as a publisher of free-to-play MMOs. Among the gaming giant’s offerings are The First Descendant, MapleStory, and The Finals. In the fiscal year 2024, Nexon achieved a record revenue of approximately 2.79 billion euros (via nexon.com).
Ironmace stated that Nexon accused the studio of stealing their idea. An Ironmace employee, who previously worked for Nexon, was said to have copied, stolen, and used copyrighted information from Nexon to develop Dark and Darker. Additionally, parts of the code and assets allegedly belonged to Nexon, according to the publisher’s accusations. In early March 2023, there was a police raid on Ironmace’s office.
Developer must pay 5.6 million euros
What is the latest development? As reported by the South Korean business magazine ChosunBiz, a court in Seoul ruled on February 13, 2025, that Dark and Darker does not infringe on Nexon’s copyright.
However, the court acknowledged that Ironmace violated Nexon’s trade secrets, which is why the development studio must pay damages amounting to approximately 5.6 million euros.
Since June 2024, Dark and Darker has been playable again on Steam. However, the free version of the dungeon crawler comes in a limited form. If you want to experience the full gameplay, you have to purchase a paid edition of the game: Dark and Darker was removed from Steam and is now free to play – but there’s a catch
