Moody cosmic horror game The Sinking City is now back up on Steam and other digital storefronts following the latest developments in an ongoing legal fight between developer Frogwares and the gameās publishing partner, Nacon, taking place in the Paris Court of Appeal.
The Sinking City, an excellent open world mystery game about exploring a flooded New England town during the 1920s, was originally released in June 2019, but was pulled from most digital storefronts last August by maker Frogwares over accusations that Nacon had failed to uphold its end of the publishing agreement. In a statement yesterday, Naconāthe publisher of games such as Warhammer: Chaosbane and the World Rally Championship seriesāannounced it was bringing The Sinking City back to the Microsoft, PlayStation, and Steam digital storefronts following a court ruling from October upholding its existing publishing contract with Frogwares until a final legal decision was reached.Ā
Frogwares has claimed that Nacon failed to cover certain production costs in a timely manner and at one point stopped royalty payments after the game was already out. Frogwares has also alleged that Nacon at one point tried to take ownership of the source code for The Sinking City. Nacon rejected Frogwaresā claims at the time, calling them an āerroneous interpretation of the content of the agreement and the nature of this dispute.ā
During this period, the game still remained available on the Switch eShop, where it was distributed solely by Frogwares. Itās unclear when a final ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal will be rendered to determine The Sinking Cityās ultimate fate on other platforms.