This has already been audited by an outside agency.

The report notes Nexon was working on a game called P3 which was very similar to Dark and Darker. P3 was first announced in August 2023 as a first-person fantasy adventure game where a group of adventurers goes dungeon diving for loot. 

However, that game was eventually canceled in favor of P7, a more traditional extraction shooter with modern firearms. The swap to P7 happened in September 2021, with Dark And Darker Gold Ironmace incorporated in October 2021. This has already been audited by an outside agency. 

According to the report, Dark and Darker is essentially P3 and Ironmace are former Nexon employees who were fired for leaking code and breaking confidentiality agreements. Nexon is also reviewing potential legal action against Ironmace, accusing the Korean developer of stealing assets for use in Dark and Darker. 

Ironmace CEO Terence Seung-ha posted a message on Discord denying the allegations, writing, Our code was built from scratch. Most of our assets are purchased from the Unreal marketplace. All other assets and all game design docs were created in-house. 

As far as we know you cannot copyright a game genre. Regarding the lawsuit, we consider it a separate personal matter claimed [by] one of our team members. No lawsuit has been filed against Ironmace.

Seung-ha also said he believed the rumors of a lawsuit are likely due to a disgruntled 3rd party. Not everyone who worked on P3 at Nexon decided to leave to Dark And Darker Gold for sale form Ironmace. Dark and Darkers sudden success has likely ruffled more than a few feathers at Nexon.