Can a fairly well-known video game, moreover with a year of publishing history behind it and capable of garnering fair criticism, disappear from digital stores within a few weeks at least in a mysterious way?
Well, this 2020 has taught us that it is possible, thanks to a case that is being talked about a lot in these hours. Remember The Sinking City, the open-world investigative with a Lovecraftian atmosphere by the Ukrainian Frogawares released in June 2019? Here, if you were planning to buy it on PlayStation 4, Xbox One or PC, know that it is no longer available, and the reasons are as disturbing as one of Lovecraft's best short stories.
The action of Frogwares
Everything started almost quietly at the end of June, when some newspapers, including españole, were already reporting on the removal of The Sinking City, a series of reports similar to an incessant rain that then culminated in a real typhoon yesterday, when Frogwares herself issued a statement on the incident.
In the two pages of the press document, the developer confirms and formalizes the withdrawal of The Sinking City from all stores except Nintendo and Origin because of a striking fact: from what is evident in fact BigBen / Nacon, the game's publisher, would be far behind with royalties payments for copies sold.
At the moment, the amount of the debt would be about a million dollars and, something almost unheard of until yesterday, in April the developer would have managed to get the termination of the publication agreement with the publisher.
However, it seems that Nacon did not even report the fact in terms of promotion, in effect maintaining its image alongside that of the game.
Even this fact alone would be enough to explain the sensational action of Frogwares, but the more you dig the more it seems that this is the classic case of uncovering of a Pandora's box full of sad background to say the least.
A long war
For those unfamiliar with it, The Sinking City (here our review) is an interesting hybrid between investigative, action and open-world adventure in which the player is cast in the role of Charles Reed, a private detective investigating some of his recurring nightmares in the cursed town of Oakmont, Mass., in the roaring 20s. A fascinating game full of goodies, such as the depth of some investigative features (we talked about it in this special)
A product with a Lovecraftian atmosphere announced in 2016 and arrived on the stores after various postponements and production difficulties, as well as after various acclaim from the press to a study that, starting from some investigative games of Sherlock Holmes, has decided to try its hand at an experimental and ambitious title.
Since its release The Sinking City has garnered mixed reviews, there are those who have lashed out against its shortcomings and those who, on the contrary, consider it among the best Lovecraftian games ever, but we never would have imagined that already in the middle of its launch phase (the latter took place on June 27, 2019), the war between developer and publisher was already in a point of no return.
According to what was reported by the press release and other sources, already in those days Nacon would have communicated to Frogwares that he would not receive any compensation from sales due to the developer delays in delivering the game (which happened, let us remember, after several delays in payments). A fact that clearly went against the terms of the distribution agreement, based on the milestone system: for each goal achieved during production, a certain amount of payment.
Furthermore, Nacon allegedly carried out a campaign of lobbying towards Frogwares, asking the developer to be handed over. the source code of The Sinking City, so that he could effectively put the finished product completely in his own hands, an option that Frogwares would have rejected for obvious reasons.
Another strange fact is that, in the meantime, Nacon herself was working with a competitor of Frogwares for another Lovecraftian-style title.
Finally, according to Frogwares, Nacon allegedly handed them “incomplete and no-income reports“, Allegedly used The Sinking City and Sherlock Holmes branding without the permission of Frogwares and he'd even put together a paper-based RPG inspired by the game without consulting the developer and released a pirated / unauthorized copy of the PC game.
Result: in August 2019, not even a couple of months after the release of the game, here it is a Frogwares lawsuit against Nacon, won by the first but essentially ignored by the second in the following months.
A long series of cross actions that led to today, with the spread of the story on social media by Frogwares.
One of those stories you never want to hear but we are sure will be talked about in the coming months.
