Conflict between Ukrainian studio Frogwares and publishing Nacon continues to gain momentum. The stumbling block was the rights to a dark adventure project in the open world The sinking city…
At the end of February in Steam sales of the game resumed, which was removed from the digital store due to litigation between the publisher and the developers. The new version of The Sinking City does not support the achievement system, cloud saves, and no DLC.
Frogwares Representatives advised gamers do not buy this version of the game. In response, the press service of Nacon said that the company allegedly could not add the above functions due to developers who “refuse to cooperate.”
Nacon claims that they paid Frogwares more than 10 million euros for The Sinking City, but the studio demanded a revision of the contract in its favor and allegedly violated the terms of the agreement.
“Pretending to be a victim is easy, but all we’re trying to do is make Frogwares up to date with its contractual and court-mandated obligations,” reads a March 1 press release.
The developers’ response was not long in coming. On the same day, Frogwares released an entire investigation into a video. In it, the developers provided evidence that Nacon posted on Steam … a pirated version.
The developers have established that the publishers have purchased the Deluxe version of The Sinking City, which is officially sold in the digital store Gamesplanet… Then the game client was hacked and modified.
So, all references to Gamesplanet were removed, an advertising banner for a new project about Sherlock Holmes etc. The new version was additionally untied from the Internet. Internet connection was not required, but it was used by an additional menu item (also removed) that led to a page advertising old games from Frogwares.
Modifying The Sinking City required a certain level of training and skills to work with Unreal Engine… However, the intruders covered the traces very ineptly, which made the work of the “detectives” easier.
Frogwares specialists were able to identify the executor of the order – it turned out to be the technical director of the studio Neopica Philip Hautekeete… The Belgium-based team released in 2023 Hunting Simulator 2, after which it was bought by the publishing house Nacon.
Why did Nacon management do this? To request from Valve a large number of Steam keys for the subsequent resale of copies of The Sinking City on other trading platforms.
All collected evidence Frogwares intends to submit to court. In 2023, the studio already won a judicial victory over Nacon, but the publisher refused to admit defeat, so the fight continues. With a history of difficult relationships between companies can be found at the link.
Read Also: Frogwares Announced An Improved Version Of The Sinking City For PlayStation 5 – Trailer And Details
Sherlock Holmes is back on the screens: Released gameplay video Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One
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