Nexon Wants to 'Bleed Out' Dark and Darker Devs in Court; Fans Show Generous Support
Fans of Dark and Darker have shown that they are ready to give substantial financial support to the game's developers in their legal battle with Nexon.
Recent weeks have not been good for developers of online dungeon crawler Dark and Darker. Nexon accused them of stealing assets, and then used the DMCA (US Copyright Act) to remove the game from Steam. The developers intend to fight, but this will require considerable resources for a court battle.
- Devs of Dark and Darker, studio Ironmace, wants to raise money for lawyers through the crowdfunding website GoFundMe.
- One employee, known as Luci, was so frustrated by the situation that he prematurely shared a link to the fundraiser. It was quickly halted, but in just over an hour, while the action was active, players supported the devs with $46,000.
- So it's apparent that Ironmace has a lot of players on its side, and once the collection gets going in earnest, the studio will be able to count on their support.
- In an open letter to the community, Luci also expressed his frustration with the whole situation. According to him, Nexon's accusations are completely unfounded, but the company has enormous resources and wants to use them to "bleed out" Ironmace with high court costs. As the developer explains, the fact that the developers of Dark and Darker are innocent won't matter if the team goes bankrupt before they prove it in court.
For now Dark and Darker is heading exclusively for PC. The game proved to be the biggest success of the recent Steam Next Fest, so it's no surprise that many gamers want to support the devs in their fight against Nexon.
Recall that the whole issue stems from the fact that Ironmace was founded by former employees of the said company. The latter claims that in 2021 they worked on project P3, and in Dark and Darker they used elements from that production.
