The developer of The Sinking City has accused its publisher of pirating the game and tricking Steam into uploading it for sale.
In the latest development in Frogwares’ long-running dispute with Nacon, the Ukrainian studio issued a blog post outlining a raft of accusations against its French publisher.
The Sinking City | Death May Die – Cinematic Trailer Watch on YouTube
Over the weekend, Frogwares recommended gamers do not download its H. P. Lovecraft-inspired horror adventure from Steam after it popped up on Valve’s platform last month.
Frogwares’ dispute with Nacon dates back to 2019, when it filed a lawsuit alleging the company tried to claim copyright of The Sinking City after its release, withheld milestone payments, and owed the developer around €1m in unpaid royalties.
Then, in August 2020, Frogwares pulled The Sinking City from sale. In October 2020, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled Frogwares acted unlawfully in doing so, and ordered the developer to refrain from any further action that would affect its contract with Nacon until the dispute between the two parties was resolved.
This decision opened the door to The Sinking City’s return to Steam, and last week Nacon published the game.
Now, Frogwares has accused Nacon of cracking, hacking and changing the game’s code and content, and “illegally” uploading the game to Steam. Frogwares has now threatened new legal action against Nacon. Nacon has denied any wrongdoing.
“This last action was the straw that broke our backs,” Frogwares said. “It’s corporate bullying, and incompetent hacking, at its finest.”
Frogwares also published a video outlining its complaint:
Watch on YouTube
Frogwares said Nacon’s lawyers had tried to force the developer to deliver a new master version of the game, but so far it hasn’t budged.
According to Frogwares, Nacon bought a version of The Sinking City from digital retailer Gamesplanet, tinkered with it, and uploaded it to Steam. This, Frogware claimed, was a breach of contract.
Frogwares investigated the version currently on Steam, and found it had been altered compared to the original allegedly bought from Gamesplanet.
“In order to make changes Nacon had only one way: to decompile or hack the game using a secret key created by Frogwares since the totality of the game’s content is archived with an Epic Unreal Engine encryption system,” Frogwares said.