Dark and Darker drama deepens as a rogue $500,000 GoFundMe sends the community into chaos

gamesradar.com:

Late last week, Dark and Darker's most hardcore fans got a surprise when a $500,000 GoFundMe went live to help support the game's development and legal fees in the ongoing dispute with Nexon. The GoFundMe was quickly taken down, but the devs have confirmed it was legitimate - just posted early by a "passionate" rogue developer. Regardless, the situation has only furthered the chaos that's reigned in the community amid Dark and Darker's murky legal status.

Earlier this year, Japanese-South Korean publisher Nexon alleged that several of its former employees stole assets from an in-development project and used them in the development of Dark and Darker. Terence Seung-ha, CEO of Dark and Darker studio Ironmace, denied those allegations in no uncertain terms. Ironmace was subject to a police raid searching for stolen code shortly after, which apparently turned up "nothing." Nonetheless, a few weeks later, Dark and Darker Steam page was delisted following a DMCA request from Nexon.

Dark and Darker has not yet been released, but its public playtests so far have helped the game build a substantial fanbase, and many of those fans see this dispute as a David and Goliath story - a scrappy indie studio on the verge of a big hit getting bullied by a massive publisher responsible for some pretty heavily monetized free-to-play games. The actual truth of the matter remains murky, and as it stands, pretty much all discussion on the game's Discord is now focused on the dispute and speculation over what it'll mean for the final product.

It's into that chaos that a big announcement went up on the Discord. A developer going by 'Luci' posted a link to a $500,000 GoFundMe on Ironmace's behalf. "I am coming to you guys to ask for help and