Developer Frogwares has delisted its Lovecraft-inspired game, The Sinking City, on multiple platforms, blaming its ongoing issues with partners Nacon and Bigben Interactive SA. It alleges the two companies, which merged earlier this year becoming simply Nacon, engaged in underhanded tactics and inappropriate representation that forced the developer to terminate its contract with them. Frogwares is an independent studio based in Kiev, Ukraine, and maybe best known for developing a detective game series featuring Sherlock Holmes.
The Sinking City first released in June of last year on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One to somewhat middling reviews. For this wave of releases, the game was "distributed," in Frogwares' words, by Nacon/Bigben. However, the Nacon website links to a landing page for the game that lists Bigben Interactive SA as the game’s publisher, not just the distributor. Frogwares self-published its eldritch horror title on the Switch a few months later, in September 2019.
While this change hinted at issues behind closed doors last year, Frogwares brought them into full view after posting a long and detailed open letter on Twitter earlier today. The letter claims the developer began a legal battle with Nacon/Bigben soon after The Sinking City came out in June for various breaches of contract. According to the report, Nacon/Bigben tried to use the IP for projects without Frogwares' consent, demand the source code from the developers, and retroactively change the signed agreement to keep Frogwares from receiving any of the game’s profits. The game’s creators conclude the statement by saying that The Sinking City is being taken down from various stores today in order to deal with the consequences of these ongoing issues, and that the studio wishes to be transparent with players and the community.
The game industry is no stranger to this kind of story and, in fact, earlier this month the developers behind Aeon Must Die brought similar accusations against their former studio head. The game’s trailer had only just been featured in Sony’s State of Play before the now-unemployed creators released several documents alleging Limestone Game’s CEO was attempting to drive off developers to claim the IP. Focus Home Entertainment, Aeon Must Die’s publisher, later responded to the situation by stating that, though the grievances were directed mainly at Limestone management, it intended to look into the allegations and take action if need be.
Historically, disputes like this have not been openly shared with the public, though it does seem to be more and more common. Epic’s big showdown with Apple, for example, has been dominating the headlines in a way that industry-focused legal battles usually do not. It is hard to deny that Frogwares, which is not a huge developer, is probably getting more people to take note of its issues than if it did not post to social media about the ongoing troubles involving The Sinking City. Perhaps that means that gamers are becoming more interested in how the industry is producing the games they love, but whether that interest translates into real change remains to be seen.
Source: Frogwares/Twitter
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