It appears that Dark and Darker Mobile, the eagerly awaited smartphone version of the hack 'n slash extraction dungeon crawler, may undergo a name change and more. Recent reports suggest that Krafton is not only planning to rebrand the game but also to terminate its agreement with Ironmace Studio.
This news comes at a challenging time for Ironmace, who have recently been ordered to pay $6 million in damages to Nexon due to an ongoing lawsuit. The core of the lawsuit revolves around Nexon's belief that Ironmace, founded by former Nexon employees, utilized trade secrets from a cancelled project codenamed P3 to develop Dark and Darker.
Despite Krafton's statements that the name change is unrelated to the lawsuit ruling, they have also announced the termination of their global licensing agreement with Ironmace. This means that Dark and Darker Mobile (or whatever it will be renamed) will proceed as a fully standalone release.
The ethics surrounding this lawsuit are complex, and it's somewhat ironic that Ironmace initially filed a suit against Nexon for copyright infringement. Even after ending their partnership, it seems Krafton plans to continue with the project, essentially reworking it into a new entity. This situation underscores the opening of floodgates for this genre of games.
For fans eagerly anticipating Dark and Darker Mobile, the news isn't necessarily negative. Krafton intends to stick to the previously announced global release schedule. However, should any changes occur or new developments arise, we will keep you informed.
We hope that the full launch of Dark and Darker Mobile will uphold the high standards we praised in our review.
