The dispute between Frogwares, the studio behind The sinking city, and its publisher, Nacon, sank to the bottom. By the end of February, Frogwares fans were told not to buy the game on Steam because the product was not created by the team. More recently, Parisian company Nacon refuted by telling fans that the Steam version was ‘official and complete’. But now Frogware has new allegations: as the studio tells it, Nacon hacked and sold The sinking city to be able to name it on Steam.
On March 1, Frogwares explained the original allegation in a highly technical post that illustrates why the team thinks Nacon hacked and pirated his game. In addition, according to the Frogwares message, “[Nacon’s] version has removed all the achievements we have prepared, thus removing an important feature of the Steam community. “
Nacon responded to a post on Steam. “Frogwares insists on the release of The sinking city,“The report reads. The report then describes the involvement that Nacon made during the development of The sinking city, such as the financing and marketing of the project.
Nacon’s statement also seeks to claim that the version on Steam is not a complete version of the game, but also says that it could not integrate steam-specific features such as cloud savings and performance “due to a lack of collaboration with Frogwares.”
Polygon has contacted both parties for comment and will update the story when more information is available.
The two companies have been sitting on each other’s throats for some time. The game was originally launched in the summer of 2019, but then disappeared from most online store fronts in August 2020 due to a dispute over royalties. Frogwares acted at the same time as today and made his complaints known by publishing a letter alleging that Nacon owed the studio ‘about 1 million euros’.
In October, the Paris Court of Appeal made an initial ruling that Frogwares had terminated his contract illegally, ordering Frogwares to “refrain from any action on the breach of this contract, [and to] refrain from any action that impedes this continuation. The decision led Nacon to ask distributors to start selling in early January. The sinking city again in certain online store windows, such as the Xbox Store.
To start selling the game again, Nacon says that Frogwares has a full version of The sinking city, something it tries to enforce through the use of lawyers. However, according to Frogwares, Nacon’s claims could not go through in court. The battle over whether Frogwares should hand over a ‘master’ version of the game continues and could last for years.