The developers themselves claim that the game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s work has nothing to do with them on Steam…

The Ukrainian studio, Frogwares (which is currently developing Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One), wrote an intriguing tweet: „Frogwares has not created the version of [The Sinking City] that is today on sale on [Steam]. We do not recommend the purchase of this version. More news soon,” the statement reads. Unfortunately, they did not provide further details, so we are waiting for further updates on the situation. We’re not alone – Gamesindustry has contacted the publisher, Nacon (formerly known as Bigben Interactive), but the French company did not respond either.

The Sinking City was taken off all platforms in August last year, due to a legal dispute between the developers and the publisher. Frogwares alleged that Nacon has breached several clauses of the licensing agreement for the game. They also claimed that the published allegedly owed the Ukrainian studio around one million euros in payments. However, the game returned to digital platforms early this year, after the Paris Court of Appeal decided that Frogwares had „terminated [its] contract in a ‘manifestly unlawful’ manner.”

Last week, Frogwares issued another statement, which coincided with the PlayStation 5 release of The Sinking City. The studio stated that they self-published the PlayStation 5 version of the game, but its PlayStation 4 version had a separate publisher and different game IDs due to „an ongoing current legal and technical situation,” which prevents a PlayStation 4 > PlayStation 5 upgrade for the players.

So Frogwares is in an unusual situation: The Sinking City’s next-gen version is published by them, but every other port (including the one on Steam!) is in the hands of Nacon, meaning the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC versions are „illegal” in their eyes. This is going to be an interesting story…

Source: Gamesindustry