Ironmace Dismisses Allegations of Code and Asset Theft for Dark and Darker

Ironmace, the development studio behind Dark and Darker, has vehemently denied allegations that the game was created using stolen code and assets. In a statement released on the Dark and Darker Discord channel, a developer named Terence clarified that the game's code was built from the ground up, with most assets purchased from the Unreal marketplace and the remainder designed in-house. This has been independently verified by an external audit. The developer also emphasized that game genres cannot be copyrighted. The controversy surrounding Dark and Darker's authenticity was sparked by a report from This is Game, which suggested that Nexon had previously taken disciplinary action against the game's developers for attempting to remove code and development documents from the company while they were still employed there. Additionally, a Korean news outlet, YTN, reported that Nexon had filed a lawsuit against the developers. However, according to comments on the official Discord channel, the lawsuit was actually filed against an individual team member, which the company considers a personal matter unrelated to the studio. Local authorities are currently investigating the developer, and GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Nexon for further comment.