Pirates of The Sinking City

The Sinking City

Nacon vs. Frogwares: The Sinking City Dispute.

Lately, some unfortunate circumstances unfolded in the gaming industry between the developer and the publisher of the game The Sinking City. Earlier this week, Frogwares alleged Nacon of pirating the Sinking City from another storefront. Moreover, it also urged people on Twitter not to buy the game on Steam.

Pirates of The Sinking City

Frogwares Story

Frogwares (FW) hasn’t had luck with publishers as its disputes with publishers began way back in 2019. The game was published by Focus Home Interactive in the year 2019. FW ran into some issues with the publisher and decided to remove their game from storefronts by Focus Home Interactive. Frogwares was also involved in a legal battle with Big Ben Interactive and decided to part ways.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Frogwares had issued a DMCA takedown to pull The Sinking City from Steam. Forgwares claims that the version being sold on Steam is not created by FW. This lead to the accusation of Nacon pirating the game from one storefront to another.

Nacon Claim

Nacon, on the contrary, claimed that FW is “sabotaging our investments” by pulling down the game. Moreover, Nacon also declared the allegations as “unjust” and added, “contractually the sole exclusive distributor of The Sinking City game on Steam.

By encouraging the gaming community via Twitter not to buy the game on Steam, Frogwares is once again sabotaging our investments in the game.”

Royalties and IP rights

Things went south when last year Frogwares accused Nacon of missing payments, holding back €1 million in royalties, and claiming IP rights to The Sinking City– which FW insists that always belonged to them.

The breaches in the contract made Frogwares pull out the game from all storefronts. However, the publisher claims that it had paid Frogwares €8.9 million including game development finances, royalties, and payment of the Steam version.

Paris Court

Lately, the Paris Court of Appeals decided in favor of Nacon and termed Frogwares actions as “manifestly unlawful”. Let’s see how this dispute turns out in the days to come.

We will keep you updated.