The conflict between Nacon and Frogwares continues, and the former claims that the developer of The Sinking City is “sabotaging our investments” because the game is being removed from Steam again.
Earlier today, it was reported that Frogwares had released a DMCA removal to remove the Lovecraftian adventure The Sinking City from Steam just days after urging users not to buy it, claiming that the version was not purchased by Frogwares was not created.
The studio later accused Nacon, the game’s publisher, of pirating The Sinking City from another store window to sell it on Steam.
Nacon has now responded with its own statement, declaring it to be ‘unfair allegations’, claiming that it is ‘contractually the only exclusive distributor of The Sinking City game on Steam’.
“By encouraging the gaming community via Twitter not to buy the game on Steam, Frogwares is again sabotaging our investments in the game,” the company wrote.
The dispute began last year when Frogwares removed The Sinking City from all stores and accused Nacon of failing to pay, withholding 1 million euros in royalties and demanding IP rights at stake – something Frogwares insists still. always belonged to the studio.
The developer claims he was forced to delist the game to prevent Nacon from building up further royalties while requesting legal action against the publisher.
In today’s statement, however, Nacon claims that he paid all amounts due.
The publisher claims to have paid Frogwares € 8.9 million, including royalties, financing the development of the game and full payment for the Steam version.
In offsetting marketing costs, Nacon claims to have invested more than € 10 million in The Sinking City.
“Today, unless Frogwares acts in good faith, there is no reason not to make the game available to Nacon on Steam,” the publisher wrote.
The company also pointed to a decision of the Paris Court of Appeal – which ruled that Frogwares’ termination of his contract was “apparently illegal” and said that all court decisions so far were in favor of Nacon.
The court asked Frogwares in October to restrain him from any further action that would affect this contract until a decision was made as to whether Nacon was in breach of the agreement, as the studio claims.
Nacon claims that since this ruling, he has asked Frogwares “repeatedly and unsuccessfully” to make the game available on Steam again. Since this does not happen, the publisher allowed the clause in the contract to turn to a third party to adjust the game.
It claims that the new version on Steam still indicated that Frogwares was the owner of the IP rights, and that Frogwares would receive royalties generated by sales.
The publisher also claims that Frogwares attempted to get The Sinking City back on Steam without naming Nacon as the publisher, pointing to this as proof that the developer could put the game back on Steam if he wanted to.