After receiving a Cease and Desist as well as a DMCA takedown from gaming publishers Nexon. Dark and Darker has been taken down from the Steam store.
Dark and Darker had everything going for it. A very successful beta launch. An enthusiastic player base. And lastly a huge buzz in the gaming industry as a whole. Developers IRONMACE shocked everyone with their release of Dark and Darker and most of the gaming community was excited for the eventual full launch of the game. That is until they got hit with a huge problem. So what happened and why was Dark and Darker taken down from the steam store? Dark and Darker Removed From Steam.
Dark and Darker Goes Dark
A few weeks ago there was news and rumors about a potential asset theft situation with Dark and Darker developers at IRONMACE and their former publisher Nexon. It even made headlines when their office was raided by Korean officials due to the allegations. Last week it became huge news across the gaming space as Nexon issues IRONMACE a cease and desist letter. As well as a DMCA Takedown of the game. This forced steam to remove Dark and Darker from their store and now the link redirects you to the steam store home page.
IRONMACE Responds to the Takedown
Shortly after the game was taken off the steam store the community started to get worried. This prompted an official response from the head stating as follows:
“@everyone . To all our fans, we have recently been served a cease and desist letter and DMCA takedown by Nexon regarding Dark and Darker based on distorted claims. We are currently working with our legal team to remedy this issue in the best manner possible. Due to the sensitive legal nature of this issue we must be careful with our statements so as to not jeopardize our position. We ask for your understanding as we work to get the game back up as quickly as possible. Please know that we will do all that is possible for our fans. Thanks!”
At this time it seems IRONMACE is prepared to fight these allegations in court in what could become a very lengthy and nasty legal battle. In what could be seen as a sign of good faith from IRONMACE to their fans. IRONMACE released a list of every single asset Nexon claims they have stolen along with the location from where they have purchased that asset. You can read the full lengthy response on reddit.