Ironmace has pulled off Dark and Darker playtest from Steam due Dark And Darker Gold to an ongoing legal dispute with Nexon. Meanwhile, to continue the testing process, Ironmace has asked players to torrent the latest playtest, causing several logistical issues throughout the weekend. Its CEO along with developers issued an apology statement for the bugs, lagging, poor optimization, instability, and hurdles players had to endure throughout the playtest.

Image credit: Ironmace

Image credit: Ironmace

“We want to apologize for all the bugs, instability, and hurdles that you had to endure during the playtest. The quality did not meet our standards and we will focus on improving the game for our fans in the future.

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Unfortunately, there won’t be an extension of this playtest and it will end on 20 April, 2023. As always, we will share the data from the Playtest shortly,” Ironmace statement read. It further added, “As for the company, we will do everything possible to get the game to our fans as soon as possible and update you as much as we can. Thank you once again for your tremendous support and we’ll see you in the dungeons!”

Despite the numerous challenges, Ironmace, introduced a new map called The Ruins, which features an outdoor setting that differed from the previous dungeon maps.

However, in their haste to showcase the new map, Ironmace admitted that they released it before it was fully optimized. “In our rush to show off the Ruins map we moved a little too quickly and pushed it out before it was fully ready,” Ironmace said on Saturday. The Dark and Darker developers made changes to the loot mechanics and lighting settings of the new Ruin maps in hotfixes. The second hotfix addressed the bugs with class skills.

Ironmace acknowledged that the quality of the playtests did not fulfill their standards and pledged to improve the game for their fans.

“The quality did not meet our standards and we will focus on improving the game for our fans in the future,” the weekend announcement added.

Dark and Darker’s Ruin map faced several issues, including some portals being removed from the server and the map becoming a single layer. Although, plenty of players on Steam reviewed that they enjoyed the outdoor settings, which allowed them a horizon for more open gameplay.

Despite the growing popularity Dark and Darker have to withdraw their game for the legal drama. Some fans took Reddit to express their disappointment as DD was about to leave the Buy DAD Gold Steam market, saying, “Today may be the last time we got to play DD lads.”