Frogwares is now sole publisher of The Sinking City following lengthy legal battle

Posted on January 3, 2024

After a long and messy legal dispute between The Sinking City developer Frogwares and the game’s publisher Nacon, Frogwares has announced that it has taken over full publishing duties for the game. The developer has also confirmed that an upcoming update for The Sinking City will cause old saves to become incompatible with the new version of the game.

On a post on X/Twitter, Frogwares states that it is “now the sole publisher of The Sinking City on all platforms, including PC“. The game will be updated to the latest version at the end of next month on Steam, Epic Games, GOG and Gamesplanet to include bug fixes and optimisations. This update has unfortunate side effect of making old save files incompatible with the new version of the game. Players on Steam will have the option to continue to use the old version of The Sinking City to finish their playthrough, at least for a limited time. Alternatively, Frogwares will make their own save files available to download for players of the Steam and Epic Games versions of the game.

The years-long legal battle between Frogwares and Nacon, which initially published the game, related to allegations of withheld royalties and a dispute regarding who owned the IP. The game was delisted from storefronts more than once, with Frogwares urging fans not to buy the game when Nacon relisted it as they advised Nacon was listing it illegally. Finally, the dispute seems to be finalised in Frogwares’ favour, with the developer being granted publishing rights over the game.

The Sinking City is currently available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The update making old saves incompatible will be released for the PC version on February 28th, so PC players are encouraged to complete the game or at least avoid getting too far into it before that date.