The extraction-dungeon crawler Dark and Darker still isn’t available on Steam, but developer Ironmace is getting ready to bring it back into the public eye by way of a different digital storefront: The Epic Games Store.
“With increased confidence in the quality of our game, we have started preparations on introducing Dark and Darker to a wider audience,” Ironmace announced on the Dark and Darker Discord. “As a first step, we are happy to announce the launch of the Dark and Darker store page on the Epic Games Store.
“This is a big preparatory step for us in our journey to deliver a polished product to our fans. If you have an Epic account, we encourage you to show your enthusiasm and wishlist the game.”
The Epic page for Dark and Darker is live now, although there’s no release date listed at this point.
Dark and Darker made a huge splash in February 2023, becoming one of the biggest games on Steam despite being an alpha build with some pretty rough edges. But it quickly ran into trouble with Nexon, which accused the studio of using “stolen” code and other assets to build the game: Ironmace’s offices were raided by police, and the Steam delisting followed shortly after.
Ironmace earned goodwill with gamers by pressing ahead with Dark and Darker playtests via torrents, but that’s not really a practical strategy in the long run: Being on an easily-accessible storefront is essential if Ironmace hopes to return to the levels of popularity Dark and Darker enjoyed a year ago.
The way forward may have been partially cleared by a legal win for Ironmace in January: A South Korean court dismissed Nexon’s preliminary injunction against the studio, saying (via Google Translate) that Dark and Darker “cannot be viewed as infringing on Nexon’s copyright or trade secrets.” The lawsuit itself continues.
There’s no word at this point on whether Dark and Darker will also return to Steam at any point in the near future, although Ironmace said it “will continue working with various partners to give our fans the best options and properly grow the community to foster a long and healthy game.” I’ve reached out to the studio for more information and will update if I receive a reply.
www.pcgamer.com