It appears that Dark and Darker Mobile, the eagerly awaited smartphone version of the hack 'n slash extraction dungeon crawler, is on the brink of a significant transformation. Recent reports suggest that Krafton is not only planning to rebrand the game but is also terminating its agreement with Ironmace Studio.
This news comes at a challenging time for Ironmace, who have recently been mandated to pay $6 million in damages to Nexon due to an ongoing lawsuit. The lawsuit stems from Nexon's allegations that Ironmace, founded by former Nexon employees, utilized trade secrets to create Dark and Darker, which is supposedly based on a cancelled project known as P3.
Despite Krafton's claim that the name change is unrelated to the lawsuit's ruling, they have also announced the termination of their global licensing agreement with Ironmace. This means that Dark and Darker Mobile (or its future namesake) will proceed as a fully standalone release.
The ethical implications of this lawsuit aside, there's a certain irony in the situation. Ironmace initially filed a suit against Nexon for copyright infringement. Now, even after ending their partnership, Krafton seems poised to rebrand and continue development independently. This move suggests that the genre's floodgates are now wide open, regardless of Nexon's actions against their new rival.
For fans eagerly awaiting Dark and Darker Mobile, this isn't necessarily a cause for concern. Krafton has confirmed their intention to stick to the planned global release schedule. However, should there be any shifts in this timeline or further developments in this story, we'll keep you informed.
We hope that the full launch of Dark and Darker Mobile will uphold the high standards we highlighted in our review. Stay tuned for more updates on this evolving situation.
