Dark and Darker lawyers ask Valve to bring the game back to Steam in letter blasting Nexon for "anti-competitive bully tactics"

gamesradar.com:

Today, lawyers representing Dark and Darker developer Ironmace sent a letter to Valve disputing the DMCA notice that led to the game's removal from Steam.

"The Takedown Notice is based on claims that are entirely without merit and contains knowing and material misrepresentations that Dark and Darker infringed Nexon’s copyright interests," as Greenberg Glusker lawyer Aaron Moss writes on behalf of Ironmace. Moss argues that Nexon's claims are "nothing more than anti-competitive bully tactics designed to put a small indie game studio out of business."

In February, Nexon - a megapublisher responsible for some of the biggest online games in the Asian market - accused some of its former developers of stealing assets from an in-development project called P3 as they left the company to found Ironmace and begin development on Dark and Darker. In March, police raided Ironmace in search of the alleged stolen assets, but according to the devs found nothing. A few weeks later, the game was delisted from Steam in response to a DMCA notice from Nexon. Last week, Nexon formally sued Ironmace for "copyright infringement" and "misappropriation of trade secrets."

In Moss's letter, which was distributed to media outlets today, he argues that since "Nexon’s claims relate to a game that Nexon never made and which does not exist," the publisher's claims of copyright infringement are not appropriate. "Nexon claims to have created 'unique concepts, genre, plot, story line, characters, and plans for the game' - almost none of which is subject to copyright protection. While the actual expression of plot, story line, and characters certainly may be protectable, copyright doesn’t protect concepts."

In its takedown notice, Nexon pointed to