It appears that Dark and Darker Mobile, the eagerly awaited smartphone adaptation of the hack 'n slash extraction dungeon crawler, may undergo a name change and more. Recent reports suggest that Krafton is not only dropping the current branding but also terminating its agreement with Ironmace Studio.
This development comes at an unfortunate time for Ironmace, which has been ordered to pay $6 million in damages to Nexon due to an ongoing lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that Ironmace, founded by former Nexon employees, used trade secrets to develop Dark and Darker based on a canceled project known as P3.
Although Krafton insists that the name change is unrelated to the lawsuit ruling, they have also announced the termination of their global licensing agreement with Ironmace. As a result, Dark and Darker Mobile (or whatever it will be renamed) is set to become a fully standalone release.
The ethics of this lawsuit aside, it's ironic that Ironmace initially filed a suit against Nexon for copyright infringement. Even after ending their partnership, it seems Krafton intends to rebrand and proceed independently. This move suggests that the genre's floodgates are now open, regardless of Nexon's actions against Ironmace.
For fans eagerly awaiting Dark and Darker Mobile, this news isn't necessarily negative. Krafton plans to maintain the global release schedule. However, should there be any changes or further developments, we will keep you updated.
We hope that Dark and Darker Mobile's full launch will uphold the high standards we celebrated in our review.
