Nexon filed a lawsuit after seeing how similar Dark and Darker is to their paused game, and a cease-and-desist letter, as well as a DMCA takedown, was served to IRONMACE in late March. Hundreds of thousands of people download and play the game through Steam.

In February 2023, Dark and Darker had its first Alpha playtest, and the game is successful. After this leak, some of the developers from this paused project left Nexon and joined IRONMACE. The source code from that project was then leaked on social media. In late 2022, Nexon put an indefinite pause on the project that they are claiming was Dark and Darker. The rest of the details about why this is happening are just here-say, but here is a rundown. Because they have been taken off Steam, the only way to access the playtest is by downloading Dark and Darker through torrents on the Dark and Darker community Discord. Despite this, IRONMACE just started their second Alpha playtest of Dark and Darker, which will last through April 19 th. Dark and Darker has also been taken off Steam, effectively the biggest games library in the world, meaning they have lost a huge chunk of their audience and a ton of momentum in audience growth.

The consequences of this mean the Dark and Darker release could be delayed or even canceled. IRONMACE is fighting these allegations, but the public is not privy to how they will fight the case.

Thus, Nexon worked with South Korean authorities to bring on the cease-and-desist and DMCA takedown. This was first discovered when IRONMACE began their first Alpha playtest of their game Dark and Darker in February, and Nexon found that it looked nearly identical to a game that they had paused development on in late 2022.

IRONMACE is being accused of stealing source code from the larger game development company, Nexon. Scheduled to be released in Q4 of 2023, Dark and Darker developing company, IRONMACE, was hit with a cease-and-desist letter as well as a DMCA takedown in late March. Scandal strikes one of the most anticipated game releases of 2023 in Dark and Darker.

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