The legal battle between Ironmace and Nexon regarding the former’s debut game, Dark and Darker, has come to an end–although the resolution isn’t a cut-and-dry victory for either side.
The two came to legal blows after Nexon filed a lawsuit against Ironmace in 2021 alleging the studio built Dark and Darker using source code and data for an in-development title codenamed ‘Project P3.’
Nexon claimed the data was intentionally leaked by a former employee called Ju-Hyun Choi who went on to establish Ironmace, and accused the studio of copyright infringement and trade secret infringement.
Now, according to documents translated by ChosunBiz, the Seoul Central District Court (Division 63) ruled that Dark and Darker didn’t infringe of Nexon’s copyright for Project P3 dated June 30, 2021.
Ironmace, however, was found to have committed trade secret infringement and has been ordered to pay 8.5 billion won ($5.87 million) in damages to Nexon.
The company must pay an initial 1 billion won to Nexon in March 2025 before handing over the remainder in the summer.
The ruling ends a protracted legal dispute that had begun to escalate in recent years. In 2023, ahead of its Early Access launch, Dark and Darker was was delisted after Nexon issued a cease-and-desist demand, which Ironmace countered by calling on players to torrent the delisted game’s public test builds until it was relisted once more.
Months later, Ironmace found a new publisher in Chaf Games. The game returned to Steam in June 2024, where it currently has “mostly positive” reviews.
This squabble also played out in United States. In August 2023, Nexon filed a separate copyright claim in the U.S. that was ultimately dismissed by a Seattle court after Judge Tana Lin determined it would be better suited for the South Korean court system.