The Lovecraftian detective game, The Sinking City, has been on and off Steam several times recently due to an ongoing dispute between Frogwares developers and Nacon publisher. Earlier this week, Frogwares accused Nacon of pirating the game to release it on Steam and issued a DMCA notice to Valve to remove it from the showcase. Nacon has already responded, saying it has acted in accordance with the rights of its contract to make a version of the game available for sale in the store.
Previously, the dispute between Frogwares and Nacon involved Frogwares’ claim that Nacon breached its contract for lack of payments due to developers. Frogwares removed the game from Steam, which French courts found his contract to be unlawfully terminated, and were told to keep it until the dispute could be resolved.
The game returned to Steam last week, but Frogwares believes that this version was not made by them. On Monday, they posted the video below explaining that they believe Nacon had pirated a copy of The Sinking City to sell it on Steam.
In a new statement today, Nacon addressed the accusations that the game’s release was based on a pirated copy. “Nacon is contractually the only exclusive distributor of The Sinking City on Steam,” they say.
“In line with the court decision, Nacon repeatedly and unsuccessfully requested Frogwares to make the game available on Steam, otherwise it would apply a clause in the contract in which case the game would be adapted by a third party. attempted, without Nacon’s knowledge and in violation of our rights, to make the game available on Steam without mentioning Nacon in its capacity as an editor, which is therefore clear proof that no technical impossibility prevents the game from being restarted Vapor. “
“Despite this blocking situation created exclusively by Frogwares, Nacon allowed players to access the game on Steam while still expressly indicating ownership of Frogwares’ rights to the game. Frogwares will also receive royalties generated by Steam sales.”
Nacon also claims to have paid all amounts owed to Frogwares. “By encouraging the gaming community via Twitter not to buy the game on Steam, Frogwares is once again sabotaging our investments in the game,” they say.
The Sinking City is currently not available on Steam.