The Sinking City: Nacon responds to new hacking and piracy allegations

The tumultuous relationship between nacon e Frogwares Interactive on the future of The Sinking City is continuing to be a really big problem for the investigative adventure game based on the works of the famous writer Howard Philip Lovecraft which, after being silently removed from some online stores during the first months of 2020, was the protagonist of an ongoing legal case against the publisher BigBen Interactive, today nacon, which on several occasions he would not have respected the terms signed in the agreement. What followed was a ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal that Frogwares, the Ukrainian developer, had acted "manifestly illegal" in his actions against the French publisher. This allowed the game to return to Steam and other store catalogs. However, no information has yet been provided as to the validity of Frogwares' allegations that Nacon did not honor its financial obligations under the contract. 

Among the most recent events, The Sinking City returned to the center of attention last week and was again removed from Steam after Frogwares returned to the attack claiming that Nacon would pirated and hacked the Steam version following the courts' refusal to enforce requests that Frogwares provide a new master copy of the game for distribution on the online platform. Finally Nacon has responded to these new claims, stating that he is contractually the sole exclusive distributor of The Sinking City game on Steam, although he used a third party to create the version available on the online catalog, also indicating that you have paid all royalties due to Frogwares. The publisher has in fact claimed to have paid 8,9 million euros in total, between development costs and royalties and now seems willing to go on the attack.

In line with the court's decision, Nacon has repeatedly and unsuccessfully requested Frogwares to make the game available on Steam, otherwise it would have placed a clause in the contract in which, if so, the game would have been adapted by a third party. . Frogwares then attempted, unbeknownst to Nacon and in violation of our rights, to make the game available on Steam without mentioning Nacon as a publisher. This is therefore clear proof that no technical impossibility prevents you from putting the game back on Steam. Although this lockdown situation is created exclusively by Frogwares, Nacon has allowed players to access the game on Steam while expressly indicating ownership of Frogwares' rights to the game, which will also receive royalties generated by Steam sales.