After being stripped away from Steam in March, after having a cease and desist notice, the dungeon-looting RPG game Dark and Darker and it is developer Ironmace is currently facing a case from Korean publisher Nexon, alleging copyright infringement. Nexon claims that Dark and Darker Gold is made using assets and materials the developers at Ironmace handled and used as they were utilized by Nexon. Ironmace has to date denied any wrongdoing.
[Dark and Darker Gold]
Filed on April 14, inside the United States District Court with the Western District of Washington, documents from Nexon generate a series of claims against Dark and Darker developer Ironmace.
Chiefly, Nexon says it seeks damages due to the “defendants’ theft of Nexon’s videogame project known as the ‘P3 Project.’” Reportedly, the developers who later enlisted with Ironmace were working away at a game under Nexon provisionally titled P3 and allegedly used a few of the materials from that project inside the creation of dark and darker gold.
“In flagrant breach of these obligations to Nexon, the person defendants stole P3 source code, audiovisual, as well as other materials that Nexon developed by using a substantial expenditure of energy and money,” legal court filing alleges.
“Defendants used those materials to formulate a substantially similar videogame called Dark and Darker that defendants attempt to distribute through their recently formed company, Ironmace. Nexon brings this process to stop defendants from continuing to profit using their company's unlawful actions, including from the distribution of Dark and Darker and elsewhere.”
Naming specific employees at Ironmace, who worked previously under Nexon, the lawsuit describes a one-year contract clause that “prevents employees from working within the same field that could potentially infringe on Nexon’s trade secrets, without Nexon’s prior consent.”
The lawsuit seeks “monetary relief including damages sustained by [Nexon] inside an amount not determined.” Nexon claims that “condoning the defendants could threaten Nexon, the videogame industry, and the consumers who enjoy playing sophisticated videogames.”
A report by Eurogamer shares images in the filing, obtained by YouTuber ‘Onepeg.’ In these images, Nexon compares concept art and screenshots from P3 to Dark and Darker plus characters produced by Dungeons and Dragons developer Wizards on the West Coast.
