The Sinking City, a Lovecraftian detective game released in 2019, was a very so-so investigative adventure: "An occasionally entertaining detective game ruined by poor writing, stilted combat, and a boring open world," is what we 66% of That's why we described it that way in our review. Earlier this year, however, the game disappeared from several stores, including Steam and GOG.

Today, developer Frogwares finally opened up about the matter, releasing a lengthy statement saying the removal was the result of a legal dispute with publisher Nacon, formerly known as Bigben Interactive. The two companies had signed an agreement in 2017 granting Nacon the right to "sell and commercialize" the game on consoles and PC in exchange for payments based on production milestones.

However, according to the claim, Nacon has consistently been late with payments, especially after the publisher acquired a studio (presumably Cyanide) that was working on another Lovecraftian game, months before the 2018 release of Call of Cthulhu The company acquired the company. After the acquisition, Nacon allegedly demanded that Frogwares hand over the source code for The Sinking City.

"Once again, BBI/Nacon does not own the IP - they are the licensee. They sell games, not develop or co-produce them. BBI/Nacon does not own the IP, they merely have a licensing agreement."

After the release of The Sinking City in June 2019, according to Frogwares, Nacon attempted to cancel previously approved milestones, meaning they would not receive any profits from the sale of the game. This led to a lawsuit: "It is not permissible to retroactively cancel a product that is already on the market because it was not delivered on time," the studio said.

After the lawsuit was filed, Frogwares said it found many discrepancies in its revenue reports and could no longer determine whether sales and revenues were properly calculated. It also found that some copyright notices were incorrect and that the Frogwares logo had been removed from the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One game covers and marketing materials, giving the impression that they were owned by Nacon and not Frogwares. There were also tabletop RPGs being produced without the studio's knowledge.

"We have been in contact with BigBen/Nacon for 11 months trying to resolve these issues, but have not received a satisfactory response from their representatives." So, during a long and exhausting court battle, we finally decided to terminate the contract on April 20, 2020 due to many of the above issues."

According to Frogwares, Nacon tried to resist the contract termination by using emergency laws intended to protect the company during the COVID-19 pandemic, but was ultimately forced to do so by the French courts. Despite this, Frogwares is still obligated to pay approximately €1 million in royalties, and confusion over the actual ownership of "The Sinking City" is still a headache, leading some OTC to "preemptively delist" the game while waiting for everything to be sorted out, according to He stated that this has led to the game being "preemptively delisted.

"Given these violations, ongoing hurdles, and unwillingness to cooperate, Frogwares' last resort was to demand the removal of The Sinking City from the remaining stores, at least to stop further sales to BBI/Nacon."

"The Sinking City

The Sinking City is still available directly from Origin and Frogwares, and the studio expressed hope to return to other storefronts soon.

Update: Publisher Nacon "emphatically" denied the allegations by Frogwares, saying in an August 26 statement that the studio was trying to discredit the publisher while the matter was still in court.

"The dispute between Nacon and Frogwares over the interpretation of the "Thinking City" videogame publishing agreement is pending before a French court. However, Frogwares felt it necessary to anticipate the upcoming ruling by publishing a press release on their website and Twitter feed reflecting their personal and erroneous interpretation of the contract and the nature of this dispute."

"Nacon categorically rejects this open letter, which Frogwares has attempted to discredit Nacon in the eyes of the public and experts (going so far as to disclose confidential information) and jeopardize the distribution of The Sinking City, which Nacon funded the development The Sinking City," which was funded by Nacon. Such conduct is unbecoming of any professional and unacceptable, and Nacon remains confident in the outcome of the dispute, regardless of the manner in which Frogwares has inflicted damage.

Nacon declined to comment on the matter.