Years-long dispute with publisher now over
Frogwares is “now the sole publisher ofThe Sinking Cityon all platforms”, says the developer. This brings to an end several years of uncertainty and litigation, which saw the Lovecraftian RPG delisted from Steam several times and at one point restored by its publisher via an allegedly pirated version of the game.
The downside is that an updated version of the game is coming to all storefronts in the coming weeks and it won’t be compatible with old save files.
“Due to a number of technical reasons, your old saves won’t be compatible with the new version. Don’t worry though, when you launch the game, you will have the option to keep playing the old version if you want to finish it,” saysthe announcement by Frogwares.
The Ukrainian development studio say they’re also planning on releasing new DLC, called Merciful Madness, which will only work with the new version of the game. Frogwares will make “prepared saves” available when the DLC launches so players can skip directly to the new quests without needing to replay the entire game.
A court then ruled that, while litigation regarding the alleged breach of contract was ongoing, the game must remain on sale, causing it to return to Steam but with the caveat thatFrogwares didn’t want you to buy it. The developers say they didn’t make the version that was now being sold, which was missing features - such as cloud saves and achievements - that were present in the initial release. Frogwares later alleged thatNacon had pirated the gamein order to re-release it. Naconsaidthat they had “organised the release so that fans on Steam can enjoy the game.” Frogwares responded by sending Valve a DMCA request to have the game once again delisted from Steam.
The Frogwares announcement does not mention Nacon or these disputes at all.
Is The Sinking City a game worthy of all this drama? Well, not really, as ourSinking City reviewexplains.
