The developer said that "absolutely no stolen assets or code" were used in Dark and Darker and asked fans not to "trust everything on the internet."
South Korean police have reportedly initiated a mandatory inquiry into Ironmace, the developer of the game Dark and Darker, on suspicion that the studio utilized Nexon's unreleased projects in creating their project without the publisher's consent.
According to a report from a Korean outlet Yonhap News (via PC Gamer), police have conducted a search of the developer's office and confiscated materials related to the game.
Nexon had been working on a project similar to Dark and Darker, which was unveiled in 2021 as a game codenamed P3 but was subsequently abandoned later that year. Soon after, Ironmace was established, comprising former Nexon staff members.
Yonhap News' report states that in 2021, Nexon filed a lawsuit against one of Ironmace's executives for breaching the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act. According to Nexon's allegations, this executive unlawfully disclosed data from Project P3 and used it to create Dark and Darker.
The case, initially probed by Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency, was later forwarded to the Seongnam Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office which requested a "supplementary investigation" in December.
In February, Ironmace released a statement saying that "ABSOLUTELY NO stolen assets or code were used to make our game." Additionally, the statement characterized Nexon's legal action against one or more ex-employees who transitioned to Ironmace as a "separate personal matter."
Most recently, the Dark and Darker developer took to Twitter to ask fans not to "trust everything on the internet." The studio attached a screenshot of an Ironmace employee's message where they acknowledged that the police did conduct a search but asserted that nothing incriminating was discovered. Furthermore, they advised their followers to "not worry too much about what you hear regarding Nexon."
"Most of what you will see on the internet is not accurate," they wrote. "There will be no delay in development, and there is nothing to worry about."
Dark and Darker is an "unforgiving hardcore fantasy FPS dungeon PvPvE adventure" that was released as a test on Steam in August 2022. The game is set to enter Early Access in April this year and its full release is expected later in 2023.
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