The extraction dungeon crawler Dark and Darker is still not available on Steam, but developer Ironmace is preparing to bring it back to the public via another digital showcase: The Epic Games Store.
“With increasing confidence in the quality of our game, we have begun preparations to bring Dark and Darker to a wider audience,” Ironmace announced on the website Dark and darker discord. “As a first step, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Dark and Darker Store page on the Epic Games Store.
“This is a big preparatory step for us in our journey to deliver a sophisticated product to our fans. If you have an Epic account, we encourage you to show your excitement and wishlist the game.”
The Epic site for Dark and Darker is now live, although there is currently no release date listed.
Dark and Darker made a big splash in February 2023 and became one of the biggest games on Steam, despite being an alpha version with some rough edges. But it quickly ran into trouble with Nexon, which accused the studio of using “stolen” code and other assets to develop the game: Ironmace's offices were raided by police, and Steam's delisting followed shortly thereafter.
Ironmace has gained a good reputation among gamers by driving Dark and Darker playtesting via torrents, but that's not really a practical strategy in the long run: an easily accessible store is essential if Ironmace hopes to get back to Dark's popularity levels and Darker returned a year ago enjoyed.
The path forward may have been paved in part by a court victory for Ironmace in January: a South Korean court dismissed Nexon's injunction against the studio on the grounds (via Google Translator), that Dark and Darker “cannot be considered an infringement of Nexon’s copyright or trade secrets.” The lawsuit itself continues.
There's currently no word on whether Dark and Darker will be returning to Steam in the near future, although Ironmace said it will “continue to work with various partners to give our fans the best options and properly grow the community.” for a…”long and healthy game.” I've reached out to the studio for more information and will update if I receive a response.
