The developer company claims uncollected benefits on Steam, Epic Games Store, PS Store and Xbox Live, whose versions have been retired.
The Sinking City, the horror video game based on the Cthulhu myths and set in a fictional city from the early 20th century, has been withdrawn from various digital stores by Frogwares, the developer of the title, all after announcing that it is still they have not received the corresponding benefits through the distributor Nacon, at that time Bigben Interactive. This has been communicated by Frogwares through an official publication on its website, explaining this surprising decision in detail.
Legal dispute with Nacon for benefits
The controversy arises right at the time of the launch of the title in June 2019, when Nacon notified the developer that it was canceling the royalty goals for not completing the development of the game after its launch, according to the distributor. Frogware denies such accusations, assuring that Nacon is the company that has continued to profit from the game of sales in which it acted as a distributor in the aforementioned digital stores.
An important message from our studio:
The Sinking City has been taken off Steam and from other platforms. The reason for the take-down is due to the actions of our Distributor BBI / Nacon. Here is our full statement.
For clickable links visit: https://t.co/t7UDTVGA2z pic.twitter.com/rIUFGHkSkd
– Frogwares (@Frogwares) August 25, 2020
As a consequence, Frogware has withdrawn the game in digital format to prevent Nacon from continuing to benefit and, in turn, claiming up to one million euros for the benefits not obtained so far through these digital stores. Furthermore, Frogwares warns of illegal practices by Nacon after the distributor tried to bypass the developer as the owner of the IP.
Recall that last summer, Frogwares already reported Nacon, getting the distributor to issue royalty reports, that yes, according to Frogwares, incompletely and with numerous errors. However, the contract between both parties was annulled in favor of the developer company, although from Frogwares they denounce that Nacon has continued to charge since then, claiming its part and withdrawing the game until further notice.
The Sinking City, however, is still available in digital format in stores where Nacon has nothing to do with it, such as EA’s Origin, the Nintendo Switch eShop or Frogwares’ own digital store.
