Dark & Darker Mobile could be getting a name change from Krafton
Still on track for global release
- Dark and Darker Mobile is set to get a name change as Krafton terminates its agreement with Ironmace
- The change seems to be related to a recent lawsuit ruling, despite Krafton's remarks to the contrary
- Dark and Darker Mobile is still on track for its previously stated global launch date
It's looking as if Dark and Darker Mobile, the upcoming smartphone adaptation of the highly-anticipated hack 'n slash extraction dungeon crawler, may be getting a name change and more besides. According to some recent reports, Krafton is not only ditching the name branding but also terminating its agreement with Ironmace Studio.
It comes at a pretty bad time for Ironmace, who've just been ordered to pay $6 million in damages to Nexon over an ongoing lawsuit. The crux of said suit is that Nexon believed Ironmace (founded by ex-Nexon employees) had used trade secrets to develop Dark and Darker based on a cancelled project codenamed P3.
Although Krafton has said this name change has nothing to do with said ruling they've also announced that they're terminating their global licencing agreement with Ironmace as well. Essentially, Dark and Darker Mobile (or whatever name it takes) will be a fully standalone release.
The ethics of this entire suit aside, it is rather ironic that while Ironmace had seen legal action for copyright infringement from Nexon, even after terminating their partnership it seems Krafton is set to basically file the serial numbers off of Dark and Darker Mobile and continue on. It seems that whatever Nexon may do to their new sworn nemesis, the floodgates for this sort of genre of release are now open.
For those of you excited for Dark and Darker Mobile, this isn't necessarily bad news, as by all accounts Krafton will continue with the global release schedule for Dark and Darker. However, if that changes, or indeed if there are any other developments in this story, we'll keep you posted.
Here's hoping that Dark and Darker Mobile's full launch maintains the sterling quality that we praised it for in our review too.
