A lawyer representing Dark And Darker developer Ironmace has reportedly sent a letter to Valve, asking the company to return the game to Steam amid a lawsuit alleging theft.
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Over the last few months, MapleStory publisher Nexon has alleged that Ironmace’s multiplayer fantasy game Dark And Darker was created by former Nexon employees with stolen code and materials.
While the allegations led to developer Ironmace’s offices being raided by Korean authorities, a DMCA takedown filed by Nexon also resulted in Dark And Darker being removed from Steam last month.
As reported by Gamesradar, Greenberg Glusker lawyer Aaron Moss has since issued a letter to Valve asking it to let Dark And Darker return to Steam.
Moss alleged that Nexon’s DMCA was “based on claims that are entirely without merit and contains knowing and material misrepresentations that Dark and Darker infringed Nexon’s copyright interests”.
Moss went on to label Nexon’s actions as “nothing more than anti-competitive bully tactics designed to put a small indie game studio out of business”.
“At best, Nexon has taken a handful of unprotectable elements and cobbled them together to form the illusion of a copyright infringement claim,” wrote Moss. “This case comes down to the fact that Nexon does not want any of its former employees to work at an indie studio developing a fantasy-themed extraction game. And Nexon will bend copyright law well past its breaking point in order to keep Dark and Darker out of the public’s hands.”
Last week, Nexon filed a lawsuit in the United States that accused two Ironmace employees of stealing “source code, audiovisual, and other materials that Nexon developed through a substantial expenditure of time and money”.
The Dark And Darker lawsuit claimed the defendants’ alleged actions threaten “the video game industry, and all of the consumers who enjoy playing sophisticated video games,” though Ironmace has repeatedly denied allegations it created Dark And Darker with stolen materials.
Playtests for Dark And Darker are currently ongoing, though the game was recently targeted by “sophisticated” server attacks.
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