Frogwares, the developer of The Sinking City, has accused the game's publisher, Nacon, of pirating the game and selling a modified copy of it on Steam. Frogwares is also asking players not to buy the version of The Sinking City currently available on Steam, saying Nacon used illegal methods to do so.
According to Frogwares, The Sinking City encountered a number of problems throughout its development phase, resulting in disputes in the courtroom between the development company and publisher Nacon. Dating back to 2019, Nacon allegedly attempted to claim the IP for Sinking City upon the game's release.
However, the French Justice sided in Frogwares' favor, refusing Nacon's demands. The Sinking City would later be delisted on Steam and the Epic Games Store, but stayed up in places like the Nintendo eShop, where Frogwares was able to self-publish the game. But the game has recently reappeared on Steam, and Frogwares is claiming that it isn't its own version of Sinking City.
Earlier today, Frogwares uploaded a YouTube video alongside a verbatim blog post explaining how the "French publisher stole, hacked, changed the source code, and tried to cover up the reporting trail." Side-by-side, the video shows Frogwares' version of Sinking City and the alleged pirated version booting up, and the Steam version of Sinking City no longer contains an animation of Frogwares' logo, among other differences that would be seemingly changed only by editing the game's code.
The blog post claims that Nacon was able to do this by purchasing a copy of the game through the Gamesplanet site as any player would, and modified The Sinking City's files by decompiling or hacking into the game using a "secret key created by Frogwares" as most of the game is locked behind an Epic Unreal Engine encryption system. Frogwares says it is aware of how Nacon was able to obtain the encryption key and plans on using this information in litigation.
"We still fully trust Steam," Frogwares states. The developer explains that Steam was not informed of the pirated version and The Sinking City looked completely legitimate on the publishing platform's end. Nacon pirated the game in order to deceive its partners, including Steam, Frogwares claims.
This Steam version of The Sinking City also rids any achievements that Frogwares created, but Nacon claims this is because Frogwares refuses to support the release of Sinking City. In fact, Nacon defends itself in a statement on Steam, saying that Frogwares is "playing the victim" and is attempting to change the contract, despite the French courts ruling in Frogwares' favor in the past.
The Sinking City is available now on PC, PS4, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: Steam