Dynamis One, a South Korean game company founded by former Nexon Games employees, was raided by Seoul police on February 24. According to GameFocus, evidence secured in the search and seizure confirms that before quitting, the developers engaged in embezzlement and attempted to compromise the development of Blue Archive, the live-service game they were working on at Nexon.
For context, Dynamis One was founded in April last year by core members of Blue Archive’s development team, including one of the game’s project directors Byeong-Lim Park (who is now Dynamis One’s CEO) and scenario writer Isakusan.
Following the police raid, it was initially reported that key executives at Dynamis One allegedly systematically leaked development data related to Nexon Games’ undisclosed new game project (titled MX Blade) prior to their departure from the company. However, it’s now been additionally confirmed through seized data that the former Blue Archive staff engaged in embezzlement, violated employee regulations and “made specific plans to cause damage to Blue Archive and its future development in order to succeed in their own projects.”
In September 2024, Dynamis One announced Project KV, a game that triggered significant backlash for looking like a Blue Archive clone and ended up getting cancelled after only a week after the announcement. At the time, fans who had noticed a drop in the pace and quality of Blue Archive’s updates (gaps in the story, substandard art and character design quality) speculated that this was related to the sudden appearance of Dynamis One and Project KV, which seems to have been partially confirmed now.
If the leaking of MX Blade’s data and the sabotage of Blue Archive are acknowledged in the investigation, Dynamis One’s executives are likely to be subject to criminal punishment for violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act. Moreover, if it is established that they directly used development data stolen from Nexon in their own projects, this will increase the odds of a guilty verdict.
