The Sinking City is back on Steam, but its developer says not to buy that version

Action-adventure game Sinking City is back on Steam, but its developer Frogwares is telling people not to buy it. As part of this, the developer has come forward with more evidence showing how former publisher Nacon allegedly hacked and pirated the game to release it on the platform without their permission.

Frogwares compiled their evidence in a video that broke down the game’s circumstances and how Nacon allegedly pirated it.

According to the video, Nacon purchased a version of The Sinking City at Gamesplanet which it then cracked, modified and hacked to get it to run. It shows edited menu items, changed UI elements which Frogwares says Nacon hacked into the game as part of an effort to remove the game’s verification process. By removing this process Nacon’s version of the game was able to bypass security measures imposed by Frogwares.

Frogwares further reveals that the deluxe version of The Sinking City was also not spared from the alleged hacking and piracy. Frogwares argued that Nacon “doesn’t have the rights to” this version that it amounted to additional information stolen from them.

Nacon responded to Frogware’s allegation of hacking and piracy in a statement published last March 3 stating that the latter had “no reason to not make the game available to Nacon on Steam.” implying that Frogwares was acting “in bad faith.”

The company also asserted its role of being “the sole exclusive distributor” and has denied Frogware’s claims of unpaid dues. Nacon claimed to have paid royalties to Frogwares amounting to 8.9 million euros.

Nacon also took shots at Frogware’s previous tweet which discouraged the community from purchasing the Steam of the game. According to Nacon’s statement, Frogwares’ amounted to the sabotage of the investments made by Nacon towards the game.

The company closed its statement by saying that it had taken legal action against Frogwares over their comments over the issue and claiming that the dispute between both companies has been “favorable to Nacon.” (Read:Valve faces lawsuit for abusing Steam to keep PC game prices high)

Going back to as far as August 2019, the dispute between Frogwares and Nacon has escalated after Frogwares accused Nacon of breaching multiple clauses within its licensing agreement for The Sinking City. Since then, Frogwares terminated the contract with Nacon, pulled The Sinking City from game distribution platforms and filed a lawsuit against the publisher.

Frogwares officially terminated the contract with Nacon on April 20, 2020. A court ruling dated July 17 solidified the termination of the contract. But Nacon still received royalties from the game which forced Frogwares to take further measures to secure the game. It took a DMCA takedown from Frogwares themselves to actually have it removed from the store as of the 2nd of March.

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