Ironmace's Dark and Darker / Courtesy of Ironmace

A Seoul court on Thursday turned down game studio Nexon's claim that the popular PC game Dark and Darker infringed the copyright of its project. However, the court also ordered Ironmace, the game's developer, to pay Nexon 8.5 billion won ($5.87 million) in damages.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled that Ironmace "copying, distributing, renting or broadcasting the game does not constitute an infringement on Nexon's copyright on project P3."

Nexon has been staging the legal battle since 2021, claiming that a former leader of Nexon's P3 project development team stole source codes and data and used the materials to establish Ironmace and create Dark and Darker.

The P3 project is known as a game similar to Dark and Darker, but it was scrapped as Nexon reportedly allocated its resources to other projects.

Though the court sided with Ironmace on the similarity between Dark and Darker and P3, it acknowledged Nexon's claims regarding the extent of damages and evidence presented so far by ordering Ironmace to fully compensate the amount Nexon sought.

"The court's full recognition of the 8.5 billion won damage claim is meaningful, as it addresses illegal infringement actions that disrupt fair market competition," Nexon said. "After carefully reviewing the ruling, we plan to seek further legal judgment through a higher court."

Ironmace said it respects the court's ruling.