But now Ironmace is pushing back. In a letter to Valve sent on behalf of the studio, legal firm Greenberg Glusker said that Nexon has no legal basis to force Dark and Darker off of Steam, and that its claims"are nothing more than anti-competitive bully tactics designed to put a small indie firm out of business."
The letter asserts that Nexon is fixated with former employee Ju-Hyun Choi, who Nexon apparently alleges is the person who actually"misappropriated trade secrets." But despite nearly two years in both criminal and civil courts, no evidence against Choi has been produced, because he did not in fact take anything on his way out the door, claims Ironmace—and even if he had, that's a completely separate dispute, unrelated to copyright issues.
We respectfully implore Valve not to give in to Nexon’s threats and to instead respect the creative ingenuity of a young gaming studio that has put out a product that is already loved by hundreds of thousands of fansWhat the matter ultimately comes down to, according to the letter, is that Nexon doesn't want its former employees doing their own thing—especially not if that"thing" is turning an idea it rejected into a runaway hit—and so it made"unfounded threats" and...