Dark and Darker developer Ironmace has responded to Nexon's lawsuit, saying it is "entirely without merit", and accusing the publisher of being a "bully." Ironmace has also lodged a counterclaim to Valve, calling on the company to allow Dark and Darker on Steam again after it was taken down last month.
This comes after Ironmace was forced to distribute its latest playtest via a torrent on Twitter and Discord - far from what you'd expect from one of the most hyped multiplayer games of the year. However, it's now clear that Ironmace intends to fight Nexon's claims that it stole assets to create Dark and Darker, and is also defending a developer that Nexon is suing personally.
"Nexon’s claims are nothing more than anti-competitive bully tactics designed to put a small indie game studio out of business," reads a statement from Ironmace's legal team, seen by TheGamer. "Ironmace has done nothing unlawful, and Nexon has no legal basis to prevent the gaming public from accessing Dark and Darker on Steam or anywhere else that it may be distributed."
The legal team draws comparisons between Dark and Darker and other multiplayer games, such as PUBG and Escape from Tarkov. This is done to argue that the idea behind the game isn't totally original, and therefore, couldn't be based on an IP created by Nexon.
Ironmace sets out its own version of events, differing from Nexon's greatly. Nexon says that Dark and Darker uses stolen ideas and assets from its own game, codenamed P3. However, Ironmace seems to suggest it doesn't have much knowledge of this project, and also says it had been abandoned by Nexon - something that the publisher has said wasn't the case, at least while the Dark and Darker devs worked at Nexon.
Furthermore, Ironmace says that aspects of P3 such as its story and characters had never left the idea stage, arguing that this would not protect them under copyright law.
Outside of the game itself, this counterclaim gives us some new insights into the feud between Ironmace and Nexon. For instance, Ironmace says that this dispute has been ongoing for two years, with Nexon even getting the police involved back in South Korea.
"After years of litigation and multiple police raids to look for the supposedly 'misappropriated' material, Nexon has found no evidence that any trade secrets were in fact misappropriated," says Ironmace. The devs also say that this dispute will be "resolved" in Korea, just as it bleeds over into the United States, where Nexon has launched its latest lawsuit.
"We respectfully implore Valve not to give in to Nexon’s threats and to instead respect the creative ingenuity of a young gaming studio that has put out a product that is already loved by hundreds of thousands of fans," the statement concludes, eager to get Dark and Darker back on storefronts.
This makes it clear that the devs intend to fight Nexon's allegations in the US, just as it has done in Korea. It remains to be seen how Nexon responds.