It appears that Dark and Darker Mobile, the eagerly awaited smartphone version of the hack 'n slash extraction dungeon crawler, is poised for a name change and more significant alterations. Recent reports indicate that Krafton is not only abandoning the current branding but also severing its agreement with Ironmace Studio.
This development comes at an inopportune time for Ironmace, following a court order to pay $6 million in damages to Nexon due to an ongoing lawsuit. The lawsuit centers on allegations that Ironmace, founded by former Nexon employees, utilized trade secrets to develop Dark and Darker from a canceled project known as P3.
Despite Krafton's assertion 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 moniker) will proceed as a standalone release.
Darkest of DungeonsThe ethical dimensions of this lawsuit aside, there's a certain irony in Ironmace initially suing Nexon for copyright infringement. Even after ending their partnership, it seems Krafton plans to rebrand and continue forward. This move 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 negative news. Krafton intends to stick to the scheduled global release. However, should there be any changes or further developments in this story, we will keep you informed.
We hope that Dark and Darker Mobile's full launch will uphold the high standards we lauded in our review.
