Dark and Darker studio raided by police following 'stolen' code allegations

A Yonhap News report (Google translated) says police in South Korea have searched the office of Dark and Darker developer Ironmace and seized materials related to the project Dark And Darker Gold. The raid in the city of Seongnam was reportedly connected to allegations that the game is being built using code and assets stolen from Nexon.

Nexon was reportedly working on a similar project, revealed in 2021 as P3, before pulling the plug on development later that year. Ironmace was founded shortly afterward, and includes former Nexon employees who apparently didn't part with the company on the best of terms: The Ironmace website describes the studio as "a merry band of veteran game developers disillusioned by the exploitative and greedy practices we once helped create."

A complaint over the matter was reportedly filed by Nexon with Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency in August 2021. The Yonhap report says the Gyeonggi Southern Police forwarded the matter to the Seongnam Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office in August 2022, which requested a "supplementary investigation" in December.

Ironmace denied the allegations in February, saying that "absolutely no stolen assets or code were used to make our game." It also described a lawsuit filed by Nexon against at least one former employee who moved to Ironmace as a "separate personal matter."

In messages posted to the Dark and Darker Discord, an Ironmace employee using the name Graysun acknowledged that the police search happened but said "nothing was found buy Dark And Darker Gold Coins." They also recommended that followers "not worry too much about what you hear regarding Nexon."