The Sinking City: Developers say "don't buy our game!"

The Sinking City

Dense atmosphere, an extraordinary game world with Lovecraft influences, successful horror elements, great dubbing: With these and other words of praise, we valued the horror survival game The Sinking City in our test in July 2019 - you can find the review here. Now the developer of the game, Frogware from Ukraine, is warning potential buyers against buying their own game on Steam. The question inevitably arises: Why is that?

Also interesting: Our early first impressions of The Sinking City at Gamescom 2019

Developer vs. Publisher

In short: The situation is complicated. The version of The Sinking City currently available on Steam (buy now € 57.99 / € 42.49) has been discontinued there by publisher Nacon. Developer Frogware has long been in dispute with the French publisher, who (according to Frogware) owes around one million euros, withheld so-called milestone payments during development and tried to acquire the rights to The Sinking City after the release.

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The Sinking City: Developer's games removed from online stores

Frogwares has announced that a number of titles - including many Sherlock home games - removed from online stores. PC NSW PS4 XBO 0

The Sinking City: Release date of the switch version has been set

The development studio Frogwares has announced the specific release date for the switch version of the horror game The Sinking City. Accordingly, the release on Nintendo's console is scheduled for September 12, 2019. The porting offers, among other things, a control adapted for the touchscreen and gyro features in connection with the in-game camera and some of the weapons. The video shows you some gameplay scenes from the Switch version, in which the gloomy atmosphere of the game comes across very well. PC NSW PS4 XBO 0

The Sinking City in the test: Searching for clues with Cthulhu

After our The Sinking City preview in May, we now clarify how the detective horror adventure with Lovecraft influences is doing in the test . var lstExcludedArticleTicker = '1367812,1333433,1331860,1293580'; The game disappeared from online game stores some time ago at the instigation of Frogware, but a French court ordered the whole thing to be reversed until the dispute between developer and publisher was resolved. Nacon wanted to bring the game back to Steam, but Frogware got ahead of it and released the game (again) on the platform in January 2021.

Also interesting: Try our big game quiz - how well it does you off?

A short time later, The Sinking City disappeared again from the store. But only for a short time, because now the game is back on Steam, this time published by publisher Nacon. Frogware warns against this version, as mentioned at the beginning. It is an outdated version.

Recommended editorial content Here you will find external content from [PLATTFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations are only displayed if you confirm this by clicking on "Load all external content": Load all external content I consent to external content being displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy . External content More on this in our data protection declaration. Features are also said to be missing, as players write in negative reviews on Steam. The version of The Sinking City, which has been discontinued by Nacon, is also currently the target of Review Bombing. Many reviewers point to the disputes between developer and publisher; The bad reviews are not about the quality of the game, you can read in many places.

Source: Eurogamer

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The Sinking City Developer Frogwares Says to Not Buy the Game on Steam

The Sinking City has returned to Steam following its removal across multiple digital platforms, but developer Frogwares has said it did not create this version and that it does not recommend that anyone purchase it.Frogwares took to Twitter to share this update, promising that more news was on the way soon regarding their warning.

'Frogwares has not created the version of @TheSinkingCity that is today on sale on @Steam. We do not recommend the purchase of this version. More news soon.' The developer wrote.

The Sinking City was removed from Steam, the Epic Games Store, and the digital storefronts of Xbox One and PS4 on August 25, 2020, following Frogwares' legal disputes with publisher BigBen Interactive and Nacon.

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Frogwares accused these companies of repeatedly breaching contract, withholding at least €1 million in royalties, falsely implying ownership of the IP, and more.

During development of The Sinking City, Frogware alleged that BigBen and Nacon would pay for production milestones around 40 days later that agreed upon. Furthermore, these companies demanded that they be given the source code for The Sinking City despite their agreement saying that they could only sell the game and that they did not own the IP.

When Frogwares declined, they said BigBen and Nacon stopped providing payments for four months.

Frogwares began a legal battle with BigBen and Nacon in August 2019 over these issues and many more, including concerns over Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes games.

The Sinking City, which is inspired by the works of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, was released in 2019. In our review, we said, 'The Sinking City’s creation of a new Lovecraftian vision paired with compelling stories, exciting environments, and memorable characters make for one of the better Cthulhu lore games I’ve played. Its commitment to tastefully updating the storytelling methods, while preserving the setting and tone of Lovecraft shines through the tedium and frustration.'

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.