Frogwares have warned that The Sinking City on Steam was “not created” by them, leading to speculation of malicious actions by publisher Nacon.
We previously reported how The Sinking City had been pulled from major retailers including Steam due to a legal dispute with publisher Nacon. In an open letter, Frogwares accused Nacon of withholding royalties, presenting incomplete sales data, and misrepresenting The Sinking City intellectual property as belonging to Nacon among other allegations.
It was due to Nacon’s alleged mishandling of The Sinking City intellectual property, that Frogwares decided to remove the game from sale from some retailers.
They assured consumers that the game would still be available through retailers they directly work with; including Gamesplanet, Nintendo, and Origin. Nacon accused Frogwares of “seeking to discredit [them] in the eyes of the public and professionals alike,” and took legal action against them.
Nacon later released a statement, confirming The Sinking City had returned to the Xbox Store; and would return to Steam and the PlayStation Store later. At that time, the Steam store page for The Sinking City listed its release date as January 5th.
That statement came after the Paris Court of Appeal ruled in October 2020 that Frogwares had “terminated [its] contract in a ‘manifestly unlawful’ manner” when they removed the game from sale. The court stated the terms of the contract must be continued until after it had been decided if Nacon had breached it or not.
The game finally launched on February 26th on Steam, along with an announcement the game would be 60% off until March 5th. However, Frogwares soon tweeted that this was not their game.
“Frogwares has not created the version of @thesinkingcity that is today on sale on @Steam. We do not recommend the purchase of this version. More news soon.”
Some have taken this to mean that Nacon have published the game on Steam. The game is currently being flooded with negative reviews on Steam (along with much discussion on the game’s Steam Community page), with some claiming in reviews and on Twitter that game is an older build with non-functioning achievements.
Others have claimed Frogwares may not be getting a cut of Steam sales, and Nacon have launched with a high discount to maximize profit before the game is removed from sale again. When asked if the Fanatical version was “bad too;” with the publisher BigBen, Frogwares simply said yes.
We will keep you informed as we learn more. The Sinking City is currently available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and coming soon to PlayStation 4.
Image: Steam
