It appears that Dark and Darker Mobile, the eagerly awaited smartphone version of the popular hack 'n slash extraction dungeon crawler, may undergo a name change and more. Recent reports indicate that Krafton is not only planning to alter the game's branding but is also ending its agreement with Ironmace Studio.
This development comes at a challenging time for Ironmace, which has recently been ordered to pay $6 million in damages to Nexon due to an ongoing lawsuit. The core of the lawsuit is Nexon's claim that Ironmace, founded by former Nexon employees, utilized trade secrets to develop Dark and Darker, based on a canceled project known as P3.
While Krafton maintains 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 its new name) will proceed as a standalone release.
The ethical implications of this lawsuit aside, it's quite ironic that Ironmace initially sued Nexon for copyright infringement. Even after ending their partnership, it seems Krafton intends to rebrand and continue with the project. This suggests that the genre's floodgates are now open, regardless of Nexon's actions against their new adversary.
For fans eagerly anticipating Dark and Darker Mobile, this isn't necessarily bad news. Krafton plans to adhere to the previously announced global release schedule. However, should there be any changes or further developments in this story, we will keep you informed.
We hope that the full launch of Dark and Darker Mobile will uphold the high quality we commended in our review.
