A court has made a judgment on the allegations that led to the surprise hit Dark and Darker disappeared from Steam in 2023.
What is Dark and Darker? Dark and Darker is a dungeon crawler with PvP focus and relies on a medieval fantasy setting. In addition to magic and magic, 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-but without the shooter gameplay. Within a match you are beating in 3 teams around Loot. If you die in an ongoing round, you lose your prey.
Dark and Darker already had some play tests that inspired thousands of players before the Dungeon Crawler disappeared in March 2023 after severe allegations by a competitor of Steam.
Gaming giant raised plagiarism allegations
What are these allegations? Ironmace, the developer studio behind Dark and Darker fought with a declaration of cease and desist and a DMCA warning on the part of the South Korean developer studio and publisher Nexon.
Nexon is primarily known as the provider of F2P-MOS. The game offer of the gaming giant includes, among others, The First Descendant, Maplestory and The Finals. In the 2024 financial year, Nexon achieved a record sales of EUR 2.79 billion (via nexon.com).
Ironmace stated that Nexon accused the studio of stealing the idea of them. An Ironmace employee who worked for Nexon in the past is said to have copied, stolen and developed Dark and Darker on it. In addition, parts of the Code and the Assets Nexon belong, it said in the allegations of the publisher. At the beginning of March 2023 there was a police search of the Ironmace office.
New trailer for Dark and Darker, the Dungeon PVPVE adventure on Steam
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Developer has to pay 5.6 million euros
What is the latest development? As the South Korean Wirtschafts-Magazin Chosunbiz reports, a court in Seoul decided on February 13, 2025 that Dark and Darker did not violate the copyright of Nexon.
However, the court admitted Ironmace a violation of Nexon’s business secrets, which is why the developer studio has to pay a compensation payment of the equivalent of around 5.6 million euros.
Dark and Darker has been playable on Steam since June 2024. The free version of the dungeon crawler comes in a limited variant. If you want to experience the full gameplay, you have to buy a paid edition of the game: Dark and Darker flew from Steam, can now be played for free – but there is a catch