The Sinking City recently returned to Steam and immediately received a lot of negative feedback from players. The Ukrainian studio Frogwares, whose proceedings with the publisher Nacon are continuing, urges users to refuse to purchase. The developers themselves have nothing to do with this version of the game.On February 26, The Sinking City unexpectedly became available for purchase on Steam again.
Soon after, Frogwares turned to the fans and stated that she had not participated in the creation of a new version of the project.
“We do not recommend buying this version,” the developers said and promised to share details soon.
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.
— Frogwares (@Frogwares) February 26, 2021Despite the fact that Frogwares is still listed as the developer of the project, the publisher Nacon was solely responsible for the return of The Sinking City to the Valve store.
Users also noticed that this version of the game has a number of significant problems.
This has led to a large number of negative reviews for the game, which is now being sold at a 60% discount. Players complain about the lack of DLC, achievements and cloud saves, and at the same time scold the publisher.
In August last year, Frogwares accused Nacon of non-payment of royalties in the amount of € 1 million and announced its intention to collect additional compensation from the publisher in the amount of €4.5 million. As a result, The Sinking City was removed from most stores, and for a long time it could be purchased on the PC only on the developers’ website.
Nacon rejected the accusations and stated that the Ukrainian studio “seeks to discredit” the publisher in the eyes of the public and announced its intention to go to court. Last October, the Paris Court of Appeal found Frogwares’ actions illegal and banned developers from making decisions alone, such as removing the game from the stores, until the end of the proceedings.
The studio tried to return The Sinking City to Steam on its own, but it was soon removed from the store. At the same time, the developers were able to publish a version of the project for PlayStation 5 (however, owners of a copy for PS4 will not be able to get a free update due to a conflict with Nacon).