As reported by Automaton and ThisIsGame, the civil case between publisher Nexon and developer Ironmace has been settled, with the South Korean Supreme Court ordering Ironmace to pay Nexon 5.7 billion won ($3.84 million) in damages. The decision doesn't appear to be a clear victory for either party, and the criminal case related to Nexon's accusations remains ongoing.
Dark and Darker, a fantasy dungeon crawler extraction game, took the 2023 Steam Next Fest by storm before the game itself was overshadowed by its legal troubles. The founding members of Ironmace were all former Nexon employees, and the publisher alleges that they violated copyright and took Nexon trade secrets with them to make Dark and Darker. The center of the controversy is Project P3, a game allegedly similar to Dark and Darker that Nexon canceled, precipitating the Ironmace founders' departure.
