Frogwares, makers of 2019’s The Sinking City, got the game removed from Steam on March 2, 2021 after sending a DMCA takedown demand to Valve. Frogwares considers that version to be a « hacked » and « pirated » copy of its game to which the publisher, Nacon, is not entitled. The two sides are locked in a legal dispute in the French courts.
Frogwares, the studio locked in an acrimonious dispute with publisher Nacon over their game, The Sinking City, used a DMCA claim to have it removed from Steam’s storefront, a Valve spokesman confirmed. To Vice on Tuesday evening, Valve spokesman Doug Lombardi said Steam “received a DMCA take-down notice” for the version of The Sinking City that Nacon has shipped — the one Frogwares calls a hacked and pirated copy of their game. “So we have responded to that notice,” Lombardi said. The Sinking City is no longer searchable from within Steam itself, and external links to the game’s product page now redirect to the main storefront. In a statement provided to Polygon, Frogwares said that the version for sale on Steam “contains content that Nacon has absolutely no rights to — namely The Merciful Madness DLC.” The studio said it sent the DMCA takedown demand to Valve because it was “our most effective tool to give us time to gain further potential evidence and to also start the required and lengthy additional legal processes to prevent this from happening again.
