The developers of Dark and Darker will pay $5.9 million to Nexon for breaching trade secrets
A new development in the conflict between Ironmace Studios and Nexon over Dark and Darker. In South Korea, the court found the game creators guilty of violating Nexon's trade secrets and ordered them to pay substantial compensation.
Dark and Darker
The court ruled that Ironmace must pay the company 8.5 billion won ($5.9 million). To understand the scale: this is nearly half of Dark and Darker's gross revenue on Steam, according to data from the Gamalytic service. According to its estimates, the Steam version of Dark and Darker earned about $13.2 million.
At the same time, Ironmace managed to prove that it did not violate Nexon's copyrights.
Recall, disputes between Ironmace and Nexon began in the summer of 2021. At that time, Nexon accused the studio of stealing the source code and assets of the canceled game P3. According to the company, several Ironmace employees, including Managing Director Choi Ju-Hyun, previously worked at Nexon and were involved with P3, and after leaving, decided to use the developments for Dark and Darker. Ironmace denied the allegations of theft and plagiarism.
In 2023, Nexon managed to have Dark and Darker removed from Steam, but a year later, the game returned to the platform and was also released on the Epic Games Store.
Previously, Nexon also attempted to move the legal proceedings from South Korea to the US. However, the American court determined that it would be better for the parties to resolve the dispute in their home country instead of the States.