South Korean court denies arrest warrant for head of Ironmace amid legal dispute over Dark and Darker
An arrest warrant was recently requested for the head of South Korean developer Ironmace Games. This happened amid the legal battle between the studio and publisher Nexon over Dark and Darker.
- On July 27, Game Mecca reported that the Gyeonggi Province police requested an arrest warrant for Ju-Hyun Choi, the co-founder and head of Ironmace. Details remained undisclosed because the situation was “under investigation.”
- However, the Seongnam Branch of Suwon District Court eventually dismissed the request, saying that “there is room for dispute regarding the charges, and there is no fear of the suspect fleeing.”
- The dismissed arrest warrant is probably related to Ironmace’s ongoing legal dispute with South Korean publisher Nexon.
Prior to starting Ironmace, Choi worked at Nexon on an unreleased game codenamed Project P3. He was later accused of stealing the source code and other important files that were allegedly used to create Dark and Darker, an upcoming multiplayer first-person action game. You can read more about the whole situation here.
Dark and Darker gained huge attention during the Steam Next Fest in February, peaking at over 100,000 concurrent players. However, Ironmace’s office in Seoul and Choi’s home were later searched by the police.
In April, Nexon filed a lawsuit against the studio, demanding monetary damages and the cessation of Dark and Darker’s development. The hearing in the case ended on July 19, and the court is currently preparing to rule on it based on the evidence presented by both companies.
While the legal fight is still not finished, Dark and Darker remains unavailable on Steam. Ironmace, meanwhile, continues to develop the game. The studio even distributed an Alpha build via torrent, with this playtest attracting over 450,000 players across the globe.
