In the game industry, developers leave the big factory and start a new stove, and it often happens that they have been killed in the project or cannot be realized ideas to make a new game, and even some well-known IPs are born, such as the reborn "Titanfall" series.
Recently, an overseas independent game developer fell into a lawsuit vortex because the product that left to start was too close to the project it had worked on, and this product was "Dark and Darker".
Some time ago, GameLook introduced "Dark and Darker", a game developed by Ironmace, a small team of less than 30 people, which has successfully become popular with its unique action system and "medieval Tarkov" gameplay.
In the beta phase alone, the number of simultaneous users of the game Steam exceeded the 100,000 mark, and according to reports, in less than 5 days of the game test, Dark and Darker eventually attracted more than 2 million players, which is a great success for an indie game.
However, just as the team was about to take off, a lawsuit stopped it. Nexon sued many Ironmace employees for "plagiarism", "leaking and stealing trade secrets", and even members of the team were searched by the South Korean police, but there was no result.
Recently, Nexon took the developer Ironmace to court, and the location was changed to Washington, D.C., and it was precisely because of such geographical factors that V removed this product from Steam after entering the litigation process, blocking Ironmace's subsequent plans.
Because of this lawsuit, some details and litigation documents between Nexon and Ironmace have also been made public.
The same door can also be accused of plagiarism, and the lawsuit becomes a copy conference?
The cause of the matter, GameLook once in "Online broke 100,000, "cold weapon Tarkov" Steam became popular, but was accused of plagiarism by the former company? " introduced in the article, here is a brief stroke.
Most of the members of the Ironmace team are actually former members of the Nexon "P3" project, and after nearly a year of development of the P3 project, the person in charge left due to Nexon's "disciplinary action", and the team members also left, which eventually led to the emergence of this "Dark and Darker".
Screenshot of P3 game screen
The "P3" project Nexon was announced in 2021, its concept and art style are very similar to today's "Dark and Darker", in a fit of anger, Nexon decided to sue the "Dark and Darker" developer, and in the recently released litigation documents, Nexon determined that the other party's plagiarism evidence is very interesting, which has attracted the attention of many domestic and foreign game people.
For example, in the lawsuit, Nexon said that there are six classes in "Dark and Darker": wizard, thief, warrior, swordsman, priesthood and ranger, and Nexon said that this setting is exactly the same as its own P3.
At the same time, Nexon said that the P3 project was inspired by the classic game IP "Dungeons & Dragons", and Ironmace also said that the game was inspired by "Dungeons & Dragons", but Nexon said that "Dungeons and Dragons" has 12 main classes, and Ironmace has no reason to choose 6 classes that are the same as P3.
From Nexon's statement, it can actually be seen that neither P3 nor "Dark and Darker" is a "completely original" product, both have traces of "Dungeons and Dragons", both taught by a master, and it seems inappropriate to define them by plagiarism, and "Dungeons and Dragons" has not yet expressed any opinions.
In fact, a similar situation has happened in the mobile game industry, a domestic mobile game has sued other game developers for plagiarism and other reasons a few years ago, but the final result is that due to the existence of some more ancient and other game settings in its own game, it eventually attracted additional claims from Blizzard and V Company, and finally settled with Blizzard V Company to obtain compensation.
In addition to the setting, Nexon also punched out the art assets in Dark and Darker, saying that there are many similarities in the setting of the game's professional characters such as wizards and warriors.
At first glance, the standing drawings of the two characters seem to have certain similarities, but in fact, they do not have a strong sense of immediacy, and many games have wizards, warriors and other professions, and the images are very similar.
In addition, Nexon also gave evidence to some scenes and designs in the game, such as Nexon's claim that "Dark and Darker" and P3 have "skeleton monsters with glowing eyes", allowing players to "extinguish the fire in the torch to reduce visibility", and in the most outrageous complaint, Nexon believes that the design of "Dark and Darker" and the doors in P3 are "similar".
Regarding this, the Ironmace team members have long admitted that the game is developed using Unreal Engine, and many of the art assets were purchased from the Unreal Engine Marketplace, and Nexon has admitted that it also purchased the same 3D model from the Unreal Engine Store, but still believes that Nexon's "widened door" can support the idea that the game plagiarizes and steals trade secrets.
From the perspective of GameLook outsiders, if Nexon's reason is valid, it seems to return to the cycle described above, if everyone buys the same 3D model can be considered plagiarism and infringement, is it that the creator of the 3D model who sells this door can file a lawsuit against all the people or companies that use the material on this ground?
Obviously, the level of Nexon's "copying" needs to be improved, and in the current game industry, code and art materials are the main basis for identifying whether there is "plagiarism", Nexon actually knows this, but has not been able to find strong evidence.
Nexon believes the game is code-level plagiarism, citing the fact that Ironmace couldn't have developed Dark and Darker in such a short period of time, unless the game used P3 code.
Nexon also said that as long as Ironmace turns in the game's source code, Nexon is confident that the code for Dark and Darker is "basically the same" as P3, but these are mostly theoretical and speculative.
More than revenue, Nexon needs to stabilize the military
Overall, most of Nexon's evidence is not very convincing and misses the point, but in GameLook's view, Nexon may have a reason to sue.
As the saying goes, people are afraid of being famous and strong pigs, and the sudden popularity of "Dark and Darker" may be the main reason why Nexon filed a lawsuit against Ironmace, and Nexon's fear may not be the potential revenue of this game, after all, last year due to the launch of games such as "DNF Mobile Game", Nexon's performance is very eye-catching, and the revenue that "Dark and Darker" can create is just "mosquito legs".
According to lawsuit documents, the P3 project was developed with about 20 people, during which Nexon invested about $840,000 in the team over an 11-month period. At that time, during the epidemic, because of working from home, the main creator of the team at that time downloaded the project data to the personal computer, and there was indeed suspicion of plagiarism.
On the other hand, some members of the team signed non-compete agreements, which is one of the reasons why Nexon wants to go to court. Of course, considering that this lawsuit is being fought in the United States, and because the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) intends to ban non-compete agreements this year, it may be unknown whether Nexon's claim will be supported by US courts.
But in any case, now that the popularity of "Dark and Darker" has greatly improved, Nexon may need to stabilize the military through this lawsuit and play a role in killing chickens and monkeys than its infringement, plagiarism, etc.
If Nexon is left alone, the success of Dark and Darker and Ironmace seems to tell Nexon's current employees that they can use the company's resources and funds to make the games they want, and leave after the game has a prototype to eat the proceeds without taking any responsibility.
Whether or not the lawsuit can be won, this kind of psychology and behavior of crossing the river and tearing down bridges is obviously what Nexon does not want to see anymore, if it does not strike hard at such behavior, it is not conducive to the company's image in the game circle, nor to the stability and unity of Nexon.
Therefore, even if the content of the evidence is a bit far-fetched, Nexon must clarify its position and attitude, after all, the popularity of this game has affected the normal operation and management of the company.
However, this is only Nexon's unilateral statement, which actually has hidden parts, that is, why the project leader will be subject to "administrative punishment", why team members will leave, whether the P3 project has changed in the direction of the big change, after all, according to the information released by the previous media, P3 has been changed to P7, the game direction and business model have been approximated, and even now it seems to be a survival adventure game using firearms.
After the lawsuit was exposed, Ironmace also responded that Nexon had never developed a P3 game, and that Nexon's accusation of "stealing trade secrets" was entirely personal, and that Ironmace's creators did not act like this, and even if they did, they had nothing to do with copyright issues.
PC market wonder, 20 people pry 2 million users
It can be seen that both sides are ready to go to court, and who will win in the end will be left to the judge to decide.
Of course, regardless of the content of the lawsuit, GameLook believes that it can still get a lot of information from the data disclosed in the litigation documents.
On the one hand, the R&D cost of the P3 project can be described as quite expensive, spending 840,000 US dollars in development costs in only 11 months, and even many art assets are purchased directly from the mall, if the same proportion is converted to a team of 50 people, the annual R&D cost may reach 14 million, which explains why the R&D cost of a game is always tens of millions or even more than 100 million.
On the other hand, the development team behind "Dark and Darker" is only a small team, but the first game since Nexon's departure has achieved such outstanding results, which shows that the PC and console game markets are highly sensitive to gameplay creativity.
Steam has more than 100,000 online users and more than 2 million players at the same time, which often requires large-scale purchases and publicity in the mobile game market to support such a large number of users.
In the domestic market, there are actually many teams in a similar situation to "Dark and Darker", after leaving the job with their own ideas to create new products, and the story of "Dark and Darker" actually shows that instead of rolling in the mobile game market, the PC and console market may be more able to create miracles, of course, the premise of all this is that there needs to be a creative idea that can shock players around the world.