Sinking City developer uses DMCA request to get its own game removed from Steam
Valve has removed The Sinking City from its digital storefront Steam after the company received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) request from the game’s developer Frogwares, Vice reports. Frogwares claims that the game’s original publisher, Nacon, hacked and pirated the game and republished it on Steam without the studio’s knowledge.
A Valve spokesperson told Vice on Tuesday evening that the company was able to collect “extremely strong evidence to indicate this version of the game was pirated,” and that the version of The Sinking City published on its digital storefront “contains content that Nacon has absolutely no rights to — namely The Merciful Madness DLC.”
The Sinking City initially launched in 2019, but Frogwares announced last year it would pull the game from stores, citing back payment that Nacon owed the studio. Nacon told Eurogamer that it accused the developer of “playing the victim” and said it had paid the studio more than €10 million to date. In late February, Nacon put the game back on Steam, which Frogwares says was actually a pirated version of the game that was unassociated with the studio (and which has since been removed following the DMCA request).
Currently, The Sinking City’s Steam page does appear in a web browser search, but clicking on it redirects you to the homepage for the web version of Steam. The Sinking City‘s PC version is still purchasable as a self-published title from Frogwares through other storefronts, such as Origin.
Valve has removed The Sinking City from its digital storefront Steam after the company received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) request from the game’s developer Frogwares, Vice reports. Frogwares claims that the game’s original publisher, Nacon, hacked and pirated the game and republished it on Steam without the studio’s…
