Having found itself in legal turmoil due to a controversial DMCA takedown notice by Nexon, Dark and Darker developer Ironmace released a new open letter, saying that Nexon's attempt is to outlast its smaller competitor financially. Afterward, an Ironmace admin on the game's Discord channel (via PCGamer) initiated a GoFundMe campaign to cover the legal fees, but the post has now been deleted for no apparent reason.
Dark and Darker has been a subject of debate since the developer team received a cease and desist letter from Nexon. The indie action game was completely removed from Steam due to a DMCA takedown last week. Shortly after, Ironmace issued a statement to shed some light on the controversy, saying that the game was not built upon stolen assets and that doing so would have a hindrance to the development process.
It appears that the legal battle between Ironmace and Nexon will cause discomfort for both sides. Following its attempts to convince legal authorities that the game was built with purchased assets from the Unreal library, Ironmace shared a link to GoFundMe to raise money for legal costs, but the page has now been removed.
The admin who shared the campaign link on the Discord channel claimed that it is legitimate, though it was posted without approval. The GoFundMe page managed to raise over $45,000 in less than an hour to cover legal costs and continue the development of Dark And Darker before the page was removed. Shortly after its posting, a moderator on GoFundMe urged fans not to contribute to the campaign as they had not confirmed if it was legitimate. Ironmace's aim was to raise at least $500,000, according to the now removed page.
"We aren't a big ass studio, and we don't have an infinite supply of money like Nexon. The reality of the situation is that their end goal is to bleed us dry in court fees. Internally, we know this, they know this, the lawyers know this." a moderator wrote on the official Discord channel. "It was posted this morning without approval due to a passionate member of the team taking matters into his own hands. We have currently paused the campaign for now as it was prematurely announced."
Despite the financial strain of this legal battle, Ironmace is determined to use every opportunity not to be outlasted by Nexon. Dark and Darker was originally set for a 2023 release, but it is not going to happen if the game is scrapped due to a DMCA takedown.