Frogwares regains full publishing rights for The Sinking City (Update)

[Update: Frogwares’ CEO, Wael Amr has provided Destructoid with the following comment:

“We’ve seen a lot of support online from people saying they were waiting for the game to be back under our control before they buy it, so that has been very heart-warming to see. Our team is dealing with so much given what is still happening in Ukraine, so this type of response truly helps a lot. We’re also happy that we can now fully control the destiny of our creation and what we might do next in this setting.”

Our original story follows.]

Via a post on Twitter, developer Frogwares has announced that they are now the sole publisher for 2019’s The Sinking City. As a result, they will be updating storefronts with the latest version of the game in the coming weeks.

Back in 2021, Frogwares got embroiled in a dispute with Nacon, the publisher of the game for PC platforms, over copyright and withheld royalties. The resulting lawsuit saw The Sinking City pulled from PC, Xbox One, and PS4 storefronts. It was then reinstated to Steam before being pulled again because it was allegedly just a hacked version of the game put together by Nacon. It was a messy situation.

It’s currently unclear what led to the resolution of the dispute. On Steam, the developer merely says, “We’re happy to finally put this whole thing behind us, and we look forward to sharing more news about the future of the franchise down the line.” We’ve reached out for comment, and will update this article if we receive clarification.

Frogwares warns that saves from the old PC version of the game will not be compatible with the updated version they will be releasing. They say that the old version will still be available but only for a limited time and suggest that you should finish any ongoing playthrough before February 28, 2024. They also plan on releasing a new DLC named Merciful Madness, which will only be compatible with the new version of the game.

While Frogwares is most renowned for their work on the Sherlock Holmes series of games, The Sinking City is a detective game set in the world as envisioned by H.P. Lovecraft. In particular, it takes place sometime after The Shadow Over Innsmouth and deals with the fallout of that story. It nails the eldritch creeping horror of the author while encasing it in a detective adventure game.

As an enjoyer of H.P. Lovecraft’s works, I really got into The Sinking City on PS5, but I got too embroiled in sidequests and eventually lost interest. I then picked it up again later, got further, and then the same thing happened. I should probably finish it before I forget what was happening.