The up-and-coming fantasy escape game Dark and Darker (opens in new tab) has been removed from Steam following a DMCA complaint and cease and desist order from publisher Nexon. This escalated an existing dispute between Nexon and Dark and Darker developer Ironmace over development assets: between March 24 and 25, assets and materials were removed from Dark and Darker's Steam page, co-op and PvP servers went dark and the game was removed from Steam's Store.

This follows a search of Ironmace's offices earlier this month (opens in new tab) in which police seized materials related to the game project. At the time, Ironmace said that players need not worry, as "nothing was found," stating that "none of the stolen assets or code were ever used to create our game." Japanese-Korean game publishing giant Nexon obviously disagrees, but no legal details have yet been released.

In a statement posted on the "Dark and Darker" Discord server, a representative of Nexon said, "Recently, a cease and desist letter and DMCA takedown was issued 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 way possible. Due to the sensitive legal nature of this matter, we must be cautious in what we say so as not to jeopardize our position. We ask for your understanding as we work to get the game back on track as soon as possible."

This latest escalation is part of an ongoing legal dispute between Nexon and Ironmace, as well as a personal legal dispute between Nexon and Ironmace employees Ironmace employees previously worked for Nexon on a project called P3 that was cancelled in 2021. They were working on a project that Nexon claimed was similar to Dark and Darker, apparently implying that Ironmace used stolen assets and code to create that game.

Dark and Darker is an escape shooter, but it is also a first-person dungeon crawling fantasy game. As Lauren Morton says (opens in new tab), it "proves that an escape shooter doesn't have to be a shooter at all." Open Alphas has been very popular in recent months and is in the top 100 most played games on Steam; Dark and Darker was scheduled for another public playtest from April 14 to April 19, 2023.

We will keep an eye on this situation as it develops; we have reached out to both Nexon and Ironmace for comment and will update if we hear back.