Krafton Entangled in Lawsuit with Nexon over Dark and Darker IP Contract
"Are They Even Touching Plagiarized IP?"... Industry in Uproar
Krafton has partnered with a game company embroiled in plagiarism allegations. The company is currently involved in a lawsuit over suspicions of unauthorized removal and development of Nexon's unreleased project, and Krafton has signed an intellectual property (IP) contract with them. The industry is stirred up as Krafton secures IPs with legal risks. There is also criticism that game companies facing growth stagnation are focusing solely on business viability.
On the 24th, Krafton announced that it had signed a license agreement for the 'Dark and Darker' IP with game developer Ironmace. Through this contract, Krafton secured the global exclusive rights to a mobile game utilizing the Dark and Darker IP. Krafton's independent studio under its umbrella plans to use this IP for a mobile game currently in development. Dark and Darker is a PC game set in a medieval fantasy background. It received positive responses for the process of exploring dark dungeons with companions and fighting encountered enemies. When it was released earlier this year on Steam, the world's largest game platform, it attracted more than 60,000 daily concurrent users.
The problem is that Dark and Darker has been caught up in plagiarism controversy. It is currently involved in a lawsuit due to similarities with Nexon's unreleased project 'P3.' The developer who led the P3 project is suspected of leaking data and releasing a similar game. Nexon filed a provisional injunction to prohibit the use of trade secrets and copyright infringement, aiming to stop the service of Dark and Darker. Nexon judged this as a serious issue that damages the game ecosystem beyond mere profit infringement. At Nexon's request, the Steam service for Dark and Darker was blocked, but it is currently being serviced on the domestic emerging platform ChapGames as of early this month.
In this situation, the IP contract has caused controversy. Since there is no legal conclusion yet, it is uncertain when the service will be suspended or if the IP contract will be invalidated. If the court sides with Nexon, Krafton's investment in new game development will become worthless. However, there is also analysis that Krafton must have sufficiently considered the legal risks, as it once faced a lawsuit over allegations of trade secret leakage. Krafton originated from a development team that separated from NCSoft. Although it achieved great success with the PC game 'TERA,' it was embroiled in a lawsuit for infringing NCSoft's trade secrets.
Krafton's position is that it acted to secure competitive IP. Given the situation where similar games are emerging domestically and internationally, it secured the original IP first. Im Woo-yeol, Senior Director of Publishing at Krafton, said, "We will observe and respect the judicial decisions to come as a third party," adding, "Separately, we hope the vitality of the original IP, which has shown new possibilities in the global market, will continue."
The game industry's view of the situation is not favorable. Even if Krafton and Ironmace's actions are legally sound, there are voices that it is morally undesirable. The interpretation is that the need for a hit game is so desperate that they are jumping into securing IPs with risks. The game industry as a whole is facing growth stagnation. Krafton's biggest challenge is also to find the 'Next Battleground.'
Experts predict that legal conflicts over IP will increase in the future. Previously, NCSoft filed a lawsuit claiming that Webzen's 'R2M' plagiarized its 'Lineage M.' NCSoft is also involved in lawsuits with Kakao Games and XL Games. Kim Jeong-tae, a professor in the Department of Game Studies at Dongyang University, said, "From next year, as the disclosure of probability-type item information becomes mandatory, existing revenue models will be shaken, so everyone is thirsty for IP," adding, "Focusing on business decisions and acquiring problematic IPs can become a long-term hindrance."
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