The Sinking City Removed From Steam Again Amid Publisher Piracy Claims
The Sinking City has been embroiled in controversy regarding its Steam release, as developer Frogwares alleges publisher Nacom went behind its back to put it on the storefront. Frogwares went so far as to advise consumers not to purchase the Steam version on Twitter, to which Nacon responded yesterday on the Steam page listing.
The entire ordeal has been rife with drama, with Frogwares stating that Nacon pirated the title and then tricked Steam into selling it. Frogwares published a video about Nacon, alleging the publishers knowingly purchased the Deluxe version of the title from storefront Gamesplanet, then uploaded that version to Steam while removing the Gamesplanet screen. Frogwares was able to deduce this by using its encryption key on the Steam version of the title for decompilation.
On March 1, Nacon, formerly BigBen Interactive, responded on the Steam listing for The Sinking City with an update that stated that Nacon has paid "more than 10 million euros" to Frogwares, noting that the developer has relied on the marketing and promotional means of Nacon to the tune of "several [million] euros worth of investment." Now, the title appears as delisted entirely from the Steam platform. SteamDB states that an update that took place on March 2, 22:33 UTC (17:33 EDT) and the listing for The Sinking City is no longer available on Steam. All current prices by Steam-centric databases have defaulted to "Not available" on an international scale.
Whether this delisting was intentional, and who was responsible for it, is currently unknown. What could be presumed, however, is that the controversy has resulted in the current state of the title on one of the largest PC platforms. Nacon using the Steam page of The Sinking City to offer rebuttals towards the developers' allegations likely played a hand in the delisting. This is the second time that The Sinking City has been removed since the dispute between developer and publisher has come to light, drawn into the public by the frustrations of the developer that state it feels cheated by Nacon. Frogwares was responsible for the pulling of the title in mid-2020, and it's plausible that the studio is behind the current delisting.
What remains to be seen is whether The Sinking City will come back to Steam after the debate has been settled between the two companies. Steam has been a particular battleground between the two at odds, which began when Nacon allegedly requested the source code for The Sinking City to help fellow French development studio Cyanide build its Lovecraftian title. Frogwares refused, and Nacon then attempted to retroactively cancel achieved milestones of the title, which was already on market, blocking Frogwares from receiving income from sales on a contractual basis.
The Sinking City is available on the Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Sources: SteamDB, GamesIndustry.biz
Reviewed by Unknown
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March 02, 2021
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