It will likely come as hardly surprising given Ironmace's ongoing legal dispute with Nexon, however, the studio announced today how the planned early access relieves Dark and Darker Gold may be delayed.

"We truly hate being unable to communicate as freely even as we usually do, however as a result of the sensitive nature of our current situation, we can’t divulge an excessive amount of information at this time," Ironmace said within the Dark and Darker Discord. "I know this isn’t the announcement everyone wished to hear but we had to let our fans know that the Early Access release is delayed a tad.

"Just understand that we are implementing a ton of circumstances to ensure the action gets in the market to you without delay. We ask everyone to hold on to the line a bit longer. Thanks!"

A release date for Dark and Darker hadn't been announced, but Ironmace has previously said hello and expected early use to begin in late April or early May, and then a full launch in Q4 of this year.

A demo for dark and darker gold coins became a major hit on Steam over the Next Fest that occurred earlier this year. Even though it was an alpha ensure that you are clearly not ready for release, thousands of players embraced the overall game during its brief availability on Steam. But since its popularity grew, so did the concentration of Ironmace's dispute with Nexon, which accused the studio of building the overall game using concepts and assets stolen derived from one of its canceled projects. That led to the demo's removal from Steam, forcing Ironmace to distribute its final pre-early access playtest build via BitTorrent, a surprisingly successful endeavor. The studio also finally fired back at Nexon in earnest in April, saying its allegations are "nothing over anti-competitive bully tactics created to put a little indie firm broke."

Popular opinion seems significantly on Ironmace's side but it doesn't change the reality around the ground, which can be that it is facing some grave allegations leveled using a major game publisher. That's a serious problem, especially for a compact studio, so it will be understandable that Ironmace might have its attention focused around the dispute, instead of on meeting an arbitrary Dark and Darker release target. I've reached out to Ironmace for more information about the delay as well as a possible technology target and can update you if I am given a reply.