Frogwares' The Sinking City - that other Cthulhu game

[rusty_shackleford]

The unscrupulous French, who woulda thunk? If only the game were half decent, to at least justify all this ruckus.

https://frogwares.com/how-nacon-cracked-and-pirated-the-sinking-city/

Nacon pirated the “Deluxe” version of the game. This version features content that was developed after the original release of The Sinking City by Frogwares. Nacon didn’t pay for this content or even tried to discuss it with us. Nacon is therefore stealing additional content of our game that is outside the contract we had with them.

If the DLC is actually included in the steam product then Nacon is distributing content they don't own, the ruling only covered content made while they were the publisher afaict. The rest of their activities are very legally grey, but that's just outright theft/copyright infringement.

Probably a good chance that Valve will just end up delisting the game until the mess is sorted out to avoid any (more) liability.
I really can't see any reason to actually go through all of this effort and blatantly illegal activity. Right now, Frogwares is looking like an underdog developer being stomped on by a giant publisher. Nacon is just pissing everyone off, and Frogwares is probably going to end up getting a lot of good PR from this.

 

[JDR13]

So? I pirated it too. What's the big deal?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

So? I pirated it too. What's the big deal?

You didn't try to sell it on Steam.

 

[Squidhead]

The unscrupulous French, who woulda thunk? If only the game were half decent, to at least justify all this ruckus.

So wait, the "pirated" Nacom version doesn't have a bunch of bullshit in-game advertisements?

 

[ferratilis]

Round two. Or three, depending on how you look at it. I like how they use the word "organized" instead of cracked. Smooth.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/750130/view/3058478454633609923

Statement about the Steam release of The Sinking City

For the release of The Sinking City on Steam, published by Nacon, Frogwares posted on Twitter urging players not to buy it. We regret that Frogwares persists in disrupting the release of the Sinking City. It was Frogwares who came to Nacon to request financing for the development of the game, and to date, more than 10 million euros have been paid to Frogwares by Nacon. It was Frogwares that relied on our marketing and promotion teams, representing thousands of hours of work and several million euros worth of investment. Now that the game has been fully developed, and published, largely thanks to Nacon's money and work, Frogwares would like to revise the terms of the contract to their sole advantage. It's easy to play the victim, but all we seek is that Frogwares respect its commitments both in the contract and as demanded by the courts.

In regards to feedback on the release of the Sinking City on Steam, this is an official and complete version. However, due to a lack of cooperation with Frogwares, we are unable to integrate Steam-specific features (cloud saving/achievements). Despite this, we have organized the release so that fans on Steam can enjoy the game.

We sincerely would have preferred that our relationship with Frogwares remain cooperative and respectful, as is the case with all of the studios whose titles we publish. We hope that many of you will continue to play The Sinking City, and may your adventures in Oakmont be a lot of fun.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Seems like Steam has delisted it.

 

[Zombra]

This is just embarrassing. I wonder how soon Bigben Interactive errrrr "NACON" will change their name again.

Nacon, lol. Might as well just change it to "EVILCORP" next.

 

[Fedora Master]

It's yet another nu-Lovecraft shitshow, who cares.

 

[Latelistener]

Whoever is trying to sort out this mess at Nacon must be truly mentally handicapped. A peaceful solution is the only way to act here, but they started a war with a small independent studio dragging them through the courts. Easiest way to kill an image of a newly renamed publisher.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Whoever is trying to sort out this mess at Nacon must be truly mentally handicapped. A peaceful solution is the only way to act here, but they started a war with a small independent studio dragging them through the courts. Easiest way to kill an image of a newly renamed publisher.

I don't even see what they're trying to gain. For a large publisher, there's no way all this was worth the small amount of money they'll get.

 

[Alienman]

Be able to use assets and engine maybe for future games?

 

[bylam]

Whoever is trying to sort out this mess at Nacon must be truly mentally handicapped. A peaceful solution is the only way to act here, but they started a war with a small independent studio dragging them through the courts. Easiest way to kill an image of a newly renamed publisher.

Sure, but if half of what I have heard about Frogware is true from people who have worked with them in the past...

 

[Parsimonious cook]

I guess this is one of those games where you can have more fun watching what devs/publishers do rather than playing. Like Grimoire.

 

[Latelistener]

Whoever is trying to sort out this mess at Nacon must be truly mentally handicapped. A peaceful solution is the only way to act here, but they started a war with a small independent studio dragging them through the courts. Easiest way to kill an image of a newly renamed publisher.

Sure, but if half of what I have heard about Frogware is true from people who have worked with them in the past...

That's not the point though. I don't care who's to blame or who's worse, but the way Nacon handles this is borderline retarded.

People will almost always side with a developer, rather than a publisher. So the only thing they get out of it is tarnished reputation.

And this game isn't something worth fighting over. Games like this became a bundle fodder in a matter of months.

 

[Squidhead]

Whoever is trying to sort out this mess at Nacon must be truly mentally handicapped. A peaceful solution is the only way to act here, but they started a war with a small independent studio dragging them through the courts. Easiest way to kill an image of a newly renamed publisher.

Sure, but if half of what I have heard about Frogware is true from people who have worked with them in the past...

Yeah I noticed this blurb in their wikipedia page that made me raise an eyebrow:

Spoiler

In 2019, Frogwares claimed Focus Home Interactive was not the publisher of the games, but a distribution intermediary that did not participate in the financing of games.[8] The relationship between the two companies ended in a dispute in the fall of 2019 when Focus Home Interactive's license ended. The situation has resulted in the temporary withdrawal of most Frogwares games from these platforms. The development studio, who remains the sole owner of the rights, had to initiate new certifications and online publishing processes for each of its games so that they are available again on the websites concerned.[8] The games thus reappeared gradually at the start of 2020.[8]

Sounds like these guys don't read the contracts that they sign very well.

 

[bylam]

That's not the point though. I don't care who's to blame or who's worse, but the way Nacon handles this is borderline retarded.

People will almost always side with a developer, rather than a publisher. So the only thing they get out of it is tarnished reputation.

And this game isn't something worth fighting over. Games like this became a bundle fodder in a matter of months.

Fair, I don't disagree with any of your points. However, I guess my point is that if some of the shit I have heard (and sorry I can't really point to public sources) is true then it might be more personal than just business. People are irrational.

 

[Zombra]

Games like this became a bundle fodder in a matter of months.

The game has been out for close to two years. It makes sense that Nacon would try to post it on a store somewhere and hope no one notices or cares to lawyer up, so they can get a chunk of sales from now on with next to no effort. It's stupid, but it makes sense.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...-dev-dmcas-its-own-game-to-force-it-off-steam

The Sinking City dev DMCAs its own game to force it off Steam, says it "may only be a temporary fix"

The developer of The Sinking City has forced its own game off Steam with a DMCA takedown.

Frogwares issued the DMCA takedown to Steam owner Valve after publisher Nacon uploaded a version of the game for sale. The Sinking City's Steam page is now offline.

Frogwares and Nacon are embroiled in a bitter legal battle over control of horror adventure The Sinking City, which has been published on and pulled from Steam a raft of times in recent years.

This week, Frogwares accused Nacon of pirating The Sinking City and tricking Steam into uploading it for sale.

The Ukrainian studio accused Nacon of cracking, hacking and changing the game's code and content, and "illegally" uploading the game to Steam. Frogwares also 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' 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. That move prompted a tweet from Frogwares, which recommended gamers do not download its own game from Valve's platform.

Frogwares issued a comment to Eurogamer explaining its DMCA takedown move, saying it revolved around Nacon's alleged use of content it does not have rights to:

"We believe in a very short time, we were able to collect extremely strong evidence to indicate this version of the game was pirated and contains content that Nacon has absolutely no rights to - namely The Merciful Madness DLC," Frogwares said.

"A DMCA notice proved to be our most effective tool to give us time to gain further potential evidence and to also start the required and lengthy additional legal processes to prevent this from happening again.

"We are aware that a final ruling on whether Frogwares are obligated to deliver a Steam version has yet not been made and could take years. As it stands, we have an appeals court ruling saying, until further notice Frogwares do not need to deliver a Steam version to Nacon. In the meantime, Nacon decided to take justice into their own hands and release a pirated build.

"We are also aware that the DMCA claim on this Steam version may only be a temporary fix and that the game may make a comeback - in this form or another. Providing partners like Valve with finalised rulings and third-party verified evidence so they can make their final decision takes time and resources. If in the meantime they decide they have to continue selling the game, we can only respect that while continuing to speak to them and provide them with more information."

Eurogamer has asked Nacon for an updated comment. Responding to Frogwares' tweet from last week, Nacon accused the developer of "playing the victim", said it had paid the studio more than €10m to date.

Currently, The Sinking City remains on sale on other PC distribution platforms where it is self-published by Frogwares, such as Gamesplanet. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One version of The Sinking City, which is published by Nacon, remains up for sale on the PlayStation Store and Xbox Games Store. The Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 versions, which are published by Frogwares, are also currently up for sale.

https://corporate.nacongaming.com/en/press/the-sinking-city-steam/

RIGHT OF REPLY FROM NACON FOLLOWING FROGWARES’ ALLEGATIONS

FROGWARES published an article on March 1st, 2021, accusing NACON of having “pirated” the game The Sinking City; NACON hereby wishes to set the record straight regarding these unjustified accusations.

NACON is contractually the sole exclusive distributor of The Sinking City game on STEAM.

NACON has contributed to the financing of development and the payment of royalties to FROGWARES to the tune of 8.9 million euros to date (including the full payment for a version of the game for STEAM), making the global investment far above 10 million euros when integrating the marketing costs. Contrary to FROGWARES’ allegations, NACON has paid all amounts due.

Today, unless FROGWARES is acting in bad faith, it has no reason not to make the game available to NACON on STEAM.

In the past, FROGWARES has improperly relied on accusations regarding a lack of payment to refuse delivery of the game on STEAM, at which point they tried to unsuccessfully terminate the contract. The Paris Court of Appeal deemed this action “manifestly unlawful”; ordering the continuation of the contract and encouraging FROGWARES to refrain “from any action which would impede such continuation”.

In line with the courts’ decision, NACON has repeatedly and unsuccessfully requested that FROGWARES make the game available on STEAM, failing which it would apply a clause in the contract wherein such a case, the game would be adapted by a third party. FROGWARES then attempted, without the knowledge of NACON and in violation of our rights, to make the game available on STEAM without mentioning NACON in its capacity as the publisher. This is, therefore clear proof that no technical impossibility prevents the game from being put back on STEAM.

Despite this blocking situation created exclusively by FROGWARES, NACON has allowed players to access the game on STEAM while still expressly indicating the ownership of FROGWARES’ rights to the game. FROGWARES will also receive the royalties generated by STEAM sales.

By encouraging the gaming community via Twitter not to buy the game on STEAM, FROGWARES is once again sabotaging our investments in the game.

NACON obviously regrets this conflict, for which it is not responsible, and for which it did everything possible to avoid.

NACON regrets all the more that FROGWARES has demanded the withdrawal of the game from STEAM, thus depriving the gaming community of the unique experience provided by The Sinking City.

NACON reserves the right to take legal action against FROGWARES for its aggressive and prejudicial comments. FROGWARES has been careful not to indicate that all court decisions in the dispute between NACON and FROGWARES have thus far been favorable to NACON.

 

[bat_boro]

I was thinking of getting this on PS4, since I don't have a PC currently. Will I be giving nigerian scammers money with this purchase though? If so, I can safely skip it at this time

 

[Alienman]

Do not get it for PS4. It's broken on PS4. Stutters all the time and from what I know it have not been fixed.

 

[orcinator]

Get it on youtube.

 

[LESS T_T]

Steam page was back 20 minutes ago, and then disappeared again 5 minutes ago.

https://steamdb.info/app/750130/history/

 

[LESS T_T]

It's back again, and is up for 3 hours this time. No statement from either yet.

 

[Fedora Master]

Do not get it for PS4. It's broken on PS4. Stutters all the time and from what I know it have not been fixed.

Don't fucking buy it all.

 

[Azalin]

They also put it on sale today,it's 60% off right now