“The Sinking City” recently returned to Steam after a copyright dispute. The developer claimed that it was a pirated version of “The Sinking City” by the publisher

Following the previous contract dispute, “Sunken city“Recently, copyright disputes broke out. Game developer Frogwares claims that the recent return to Steam’s “Sunken city》Is a pirated version of the publisher Nacon, and players are advised not to buy it.-

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　　《Sunken city》Is a Cthulhu horror-style open world exploration and adventure game,Since the work was released in June 2019, it has been involved in contract disputes and temporarily removed from the shelves., And in January this year, the publisher Nacon announced that all game versions will return to the digital store one after another. Just before February 27th, “Sunken city》PC version is back on the Steam platform. However, the game developer Frogwares pointed out via Twitter that day that the publisher Nacon released a version made by non-developer Frogwares on the Steam game platform on February 27, and urged players not to buy it.-

Developer Frogwares then used articles and videos on March 1 to explain how the publisher Nacon cracked and misappropriated “Sunken city“. Frogwares first stated in the article that during 2020, Nacon continued to use lawyers to force Frogwares to provide new versions of the game. The French judge rejected the request of Nacon’s lawyers for the second time during the litigation. As for Nacon’s request “whether Frogwares is obligated to provide the final version of Steam to Nacon”, its judgment will still be decided by the court in the next few months or even years. Therefore, when Frogwares saw the “Sunken city“They were surprised after it was relisted on Steam, and emphasized that “Frogwares has not provided this version. This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened.”-

Frogwares pointed out that on December 28, 2020, Alain Falc, the owner and CEO of Nacon, warned Frogwares in a written document: “You have 48 hours to upload a new Steam version.” After that, Nacon purchased a “Sunken city“Version and upload it to Steam. “Nacon is not only illegal but also illegal contract,” Frogwares said: “We notified Steam of this to prevent the game from launching because it was obviously pirated.”-

When Frogwares launches the game version published by Nacon on Steam and the version specially prepared for Gamesplanet, players can see some differences between the two, such as Nacon Logo replacing the Gamesplanet logo, different reading screens, and the Gamesplanet LOGO deleted And the information displayed on the main menu. For further confirmation, Frogwares checked the details of the Nacon Steam version, including file structure, file size, etc.

• Original picture

• Steam version screen

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• Original picture

• Steam version screen

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Frogwares explained: “Because the game version is encrypted and archived by Unreal Engine, the only way to modify it is to log in with the password created by Frogwares through decompilation or hacking. Simply put, this is a hack. When a hacker intentionally steals the product and makes money from it, it is called piracy or forgery.” In order to verify, Frogwares downloaded the Steam version uploaded by Nacon, logged in with the original password and executed smoothly, and opened it. After reviewing the file and reviewing its details, Frogwares is even more convinced that this is a pirated commercial version from Gamesplanet’s website, and Nacon bought it from Gamesplanet like all players.

Regarding Frogwares’ allegations, Nacon issued a statement regarding the Steam version: “This version is an official and complete version. However, due to the lack of cooperation with Frogwares, we are unable to provide Steam-specific features such as cloud storage, achievements and other functions. In terms of game content Contains only basic content, no additional content added.”

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