The dispute between Frogwares, the studio behind The Sinking City, and its editor, Nacon, plunged into new depths. Towards the end of February, Frogwares told fans not to buy the game on Steam, because the product was “not created” by the team. More recently, Parisian company Nacon countered by telling fans that the Steam version was “official and complete”. But now, Frogware has new claims: as the studio says, Nacon hacked and sold The Sinking City to list it on Steam.
On March 1, Frogwares clarified the original statement in a rather technical post that illustrates why the team thinks Nacon has hacked and pirated their game. In addition, according to Frogwares’ post, “[Nacon’s] version deleted all the achievements we prepared, thus removing a key feature from the Steam community. “
Nacon responded to the accusations through a post on Steam. “Frogwares continues to hinder the launch of The Sinking City,”The post states. The post then describes Nacon’s involvement throughout the development of The Sinking City, as project financing and marketing.
Nacon’s statement also attempts to refute claims that the version on Steam is not a full version of the game – but it also says that it has not been able to integrate specific Steam features, such as cloud rescues and achievements “due to a lack of cooperation with Frogwares. “
Polygon has contacted both parties for comment and will update the story when more information is available.
The two companies have been facing each other for some time. The game was originally released in the summer of 2019, but then disappeared from most online stores in August 2020 due to a dispute over royalties. Taking a similar action to what it did today, Frogwares made its complaints public, publishing a letter claiming that Nacon owed the studio “about 1 million euros”.
In October, the Paris Court of Appeal issued an initial decision saying that Frogwares illegally terminated its contract and ordered Frogwares to “refrain from any action on breach of this contract, [and to] refrain from any action that prevents this continuation. ”This decision led Nacon, in early January, to ask distributors to start selling The Sinking City again at certain online stores, such as the Xbox Store.
To start selling the game again, Nacon says it needed Frogwares to deliver a full version of The Sinking City, something that he tried to assert through lawyers. But, according to Frogwares, Nacon’s demands could not really pass through the court. The fight over whether Frogwares needs to deliver a “master” version of the game continues and can take years.