Despite the videogame The Sinking City appearing on Steam at a reduced sale price, the developers have come out and advised users not to purchase it, claiming it's not the version they created.Frogwares, the developers behind the game, issued the statement on Twitter: "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." When examining the Cthulhu-mythos-inspired game on Steam, it can be observed that while Frogwares is listed as the developer, it was published by Nacon. The game's reemergence follows it initially being removed from various digital platforms due to a legal dispute with BigBen Interactive and Nacon.
The Sinking City was originally released in 2019 but was withdrawn from online distributors in Aug. 2020. The legal disputes behind its removal stemmed from allegations by Frogwares that the publishers were withholding royalties and attempting to wrongfully imply ownership of the intellectual property. The original agreement, according to Frogwares, was that they would retain possession of the IP and the publishers would only sell the game. Additionally, they alleged that BigBen and Nacon were consistently late in paying. Despite this, they eventually asked for the source code to the game, which the developers refused to provide due to their agreement. This supposedly resulted in the publishers withholding payments for four months.
Nacon issued a response to Frogwares allegations at the time, stating it "emphatically rejects this open letter, the terms of which do not square with the facts." The legal dispute that began between the two companies was made more complicated by the involvement of other Frogwares games published by Nacon, such as the Sherlock Holmes series.
The possibility of the game's return to Valve's platform arose after the Paris Court of Appeal ruled Frogwares act of removing the game as unlawful. However, it was the developers that were first to act on a possible return, placing the game on Steam Jan. 2021. The return was short-lived, with it once again being removed.
The version provided by Nacon has gone on to receive a backlash of negative review bombing on Steam. While much of it is due to the dispute between the two companies, some of the reviews have specified certain grievances in line with Frogwares' tweet. It has been noted that the available game is lacking features observed in Jan., such as any of the DLC or achievements. This has led users to speculate that it's actually an older version of the game, supporting Frogware's claim.