Among the many other games that appeared on Steam last Friday was a title The sinking city. Under normal circumstances, this would not have been noticeable. This is a game from 2019 that has mostly earned average reviews. However, its developer, a studio called Frogwares, says The sinking city was uploaded to Valve’s store window without his permission by the previous publisher.
The studio shared an extensive video Monday outlining its accusations against Nacon. In short, Frogwares claims that the company bought a copy of the game at a competing store window and then went hacking and uploaded it to Steam. The developer said it was Nacon’s third attempt to release a pirate version of The sinking city and this latest one came after the company issued him a 48-hour ultimatum. According to the studio, the Steam release of the game contains several character changes that have been changed, including missing logos and UI elements. Frogwares was able to examine the configuration files using its own encryption key, which appears that Nacon did not change when it re-uploaded the game.
“To be clear, it is burglary and when burglary is intended to steal a product and make money with it, it is called piracy or counterfeiting,” the studio said. To achieve this goal, programmers with serious skills must be involved. It is not self-employed by inexperienced people, it is done by programmers who know [the] Unreal engine good. ”
The two companies were involved in more than The Sinking city since 2019. It is not available on some platforms. The studio believes that Nacon will try the hacked version of The sinking city to other store windows. Nacon addressed the allegations in an update on the games. “We regret that Frogwares continues to disrupt the release of Sinking City. “It was Frogwares who came to Nacon to request funding for the development of the game, and to date, more than 10 million euros have been paid by Facon to Frogwares,” he said.
As of this writing, The sinking city is still available for purchase via Steam. Frogwares said Nacon would have to face “legal consequences” for his actions.