Ironmace Games lawyer accuses Nexon of “anti-competitive bully tactics” over Dark and Darker


Darkish and Darker developer Ironmace Video games’ attorneys have despatched a letter to Valve concerning the sport being delisted on Steam.


The complete street of Darkish and Darker’s journey because the starting of the yr has been fairly the bumpy one. Following a really profitable playtest in February, developer Ironmace has been topic to a police raid, Darkish and Darker being pulled from Steam, and a lawsuit from Nexon. Now, as reported by GamesRadar, Ironmace’s attorneys have responded to the accusations from Nexon, having written a letter to Valve disputing the DMCA discover that eliminated the sport from Steam.


“The Takedown Discover is predicated on claims which are completely with out benefit and accommodates figuring out and materials misrepresentations that Darkish and Darker infringed Nexon’s copyright pursuits,” writes Greeberg Glusker lawyer Aaron Moss on behalf of Ironmace. Moss went on to say that Nexon’s claims are “nothing greater than anti-competitive bully ways designed to place a small indie sport studio out of enterprise.”


Moss’ letter highlights that Naxon is claiming a “sport that Nexon by no means made and which doesn’t exist,” noting that the huge writer “claims to have created ‘distinctive ideas, style, plot, story line, characters, and plans for the sport’ – virtually none of which is topic to copyright safety. Whereas the precise expression of plot, story line, and characters actually could also be protectable, copyright doesn’t defend ideas.”


The ideas in query relate to a sport mission often called P3, which Nexon have pointed similarities seen in idea artwork for each that unreleased sport, and Darkish and Darker. Nonetheless, Moss makes the argument that apart from the similarities of typical fantasy designs like wizards and barbarians, the comparisons do not transcend that.


Moss additionally addressed the claims of stolen property, writing, “what seems in Darkish and Darker consists primarily of third-party property legally acquired from the Unreal Engine asset retailer. To the extent that Nexon used the identical or related property, that doesn’t give rise to a copyright declare.”


This letter is particularly addressed to Valve, so is extra about getting the sport again on Steam (presumably so Ironmace does not need to ask its participant base to torrent the sport), so it stays to be seen how the lawsuit will pan out.