Ukrainian studio Frogwares, after a protracted legal dispute with original publisher Nacon, has become the only true publisher of the Lovecraft-inspired detective adventure The Sinking City, "with the latest bug fixes and optimizations." The company announced that a new version of the game will be released soon.

"Frogwares is now the sole publisher of 'The Sinking City' on all platforms, including Steam," the studio announced on Steam." We are finally able to put this whole thing behind us and we look forward to sharing more news about the future of the franchise down the line"

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The "whole thing," as Frogwares puts it, was a messy legal dispute with Nacon that began after "The Sinking City" was released in 2019; Frogwares claimed that Nacon was consistently late with payments during the game's development, and at one At some point, Frogwares allegedly demanded that Nacon hand over the source code for "The Sinking City," but the studio refused.

He also stated that Nacon attempted to retroactively cancel previously approved milestones after the game was released, meaning that the studio would not benefit from sales of the game, and that he discovered numerous inconsistencies in the way sales were calculated after the suit was filed.Nacon denied the allegations "vigorously" and said it intended to take its own legal action to "obtain relief."

Frogwares ultimately requested that The Sinking City be removed from Steam, GOG, and other storefronts in 2020 to "stop any further sales to BBI/Nacon."

In early 2021, a French court ruled that the dispute be fully Nacon returned The Sinking City to Steam after a French court ruled that the publishing agreement should continue as a "precautionary measure" until the dispute was fully resolved; Frogwares urged fans not to purchase the game and filed a DMCA removal notice a few days later, again forcing its removal from Steam. In a statement provided to PC Gamer, Frogwares stated that it was ultimately able to resolve its dispute with Nacon "amicably" and that the two companies "jointly decided"

to terminate their publishing agreement as of December 31, 2023.

Now that this date has passed, Frogwares appears to be starting all over; an updated version of The Sinking City will be released, altered to the point that it is incompatible with the original save.

New DLC called Merciful Madness is also on the way, which also requires a new version of the game, but Frogwares says it will be releasing pre-made saves, so there is no need to replay the entire game to play the DLC.

No release date for the updated version of The Sinking City was announced, but Frogwares says it will sell the old version until February 28, so it will probably be after that. If you're interested, this wouldn't be a bad time to pick it up: in the Steam Winter Sale, which ends on January 4, "The Sinking City" is currently 90% off ($4/£3.49/€4).