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Developers at IRONMACE, many of whom are former Nexon employees, have been accused of stealing assets from their previous employer’s canceled project. Despite denying allegations of theft, the game was removed from Steam. It’s a confusing situation that, if the allegations turn out to be true, could result in IRONMACE facing heavy fines. Now, however, the story has taken the strangest turn.
While IRONMACE was busy providing evidence for their case, one of the employees took matters into their own hands and opened a GoFundMe page. The Dark and Darker discord admin Luci posted a message about the stress the team is under due to the allegations made by Nexon. The report claims that Nexon is simply using its financial advantage to milk IRONMACE dry. The post also includes a link to GoFundMe so fans can contribute to the studio’s legal fees. In less than an hour, the page raised over $46,000.
However, IRONMACE management does not appear to have been involved, and the GoFundMe page was set up by an employee acting on their own initiative. The page was taken down, with another Graysun admin confirming that while the page was legitimate, it was posted “without approval due to a passionate team member taking the initiative.”
“We have currently suspended the campaign as it was announced prematurely,” they added. “We appreciate the tremendous support shown in such a short amount of time! We are very sorry for the confusion and will be taking appropriate steps to resolve it within the next few hours. We will make another announcement on how GoFundMe will proceed.”
Raising $46,000 in less than an hour is an impressive result, showing that Dark and Darker has a fan base that loves the game and wants it back on Steam, whether the accusations are true or false. Only time will tell if IRONMACE can handle it.