The situation around Dark and Darker has taken an unexpected turn. Although the legal fight between Ironmace Games and publisher Nexon is not yet over, PUBG maker Krafton is now considering creating a mobile game based on this IP.
On August 23, Krafton signed a licensing agreement with Ironmace Games for the possible use of the studio’s scandalous IP.
According to a press release, the partnership grants the South Korean publisher the exclusive global license for the mobile game adaptation of Dark and Darker.
“We strongly respect various evaluations from the global fans to the original IP,” Krafton senior head of publishing business division Rafael Lim said. “In addition, we hope that the potential of the original IP that had shown a new possibility in the global market will continue to live on.”
Despite the newly signed agreement, Krafton is only evaluating the integration of Dark and Darker into its development pipeline. A potential mobile title could be created by one of the company’s gaming divisions, Bluehole Studio, which is now working on an unannounced mobile project.
The biggest issue here is that Dark and Darker is still in a state of legal limbo. Nexon, another South Korean publisher, filed a lawsuit against Ironmace earlier this year, accusing the devs of stealing ideas and the source code (the studio’s founders previously worked at Nexon on the now-canceled Project P3, which had a similar concept to their new game).
Although the Dark and Darker developer recently signed a publishing deal with Chaf Games, the game remains unavailable on Steam (its Early Access version is now being sold only on the Chaf Games platform and the studio’s own website). So it is unclear how Krafton will be able to make any new product based on the IP that is the subject of the ongoing lawsuit.
