The Sinking City - Open-world, Lovecraft, investigations

Full statement

Nacon BigBen sounds super ultra mega duper hyper scummy.

Since Frogwares is selling a “DRM free” copy of The Sinking City on their website, and since the game is half off right now, I decided to buy the Deluxe Edition for $32.49.

I have my doubts about it being DRM free however, as it is not as simple as downloading a file (or files) and then archiving it for later. This is nothing like buying a game from GOG, and I’m thinking I should have waited for it to show up at GOG, but that sounds like it could be many months away.

Holy cow, what a rigamarole. I first had to verify the amount of a temporary charge to my credit card by going to my credit card’s website, finding the exact amount they charged, and then entering that in like a kind of code verification. Then I had to download a Frogwares Launcher, then log in to it with Facebook, then check my email to get the game’s verification code, and copy/paste that in to the launcher for it to actually start downloading. Only they didn’t call it a download. It was called an install, and the game downloaded and installed all in one shot. This is the most convoluted DRM free scheme I’ve ever experienced, and I have no idea if I can even archive the game for future installs, or if I have to always do it through their launcher and use an activation code each time.

On the positive side, the download and install were quite fast.

And it has a Steam store page again!

Error is one of my favorite genres

I don’t understand what’s going on here. Frogwares, the original developer of The Sinking City, is dissuading people from buying the recent re-release because they weren’t involved in developing this version of the game? Apparently it’s an earlier, unpatched version? This is weird.

It sounds like they are not publishing the game on Steam, but someone else (the publisher they are in a fight, I guess), that would explain it, if they won’t see a dime of those sales.

But according to the article, looks like Frogware does own the rights on Playstation, where they have re-released the game. It’s like they have joint custody of the game with their publisher.

This is very common, especially with European made titles. Platform, distribution method (physical versus digital), and region are all separate aspects when drawing up publishing and distribution agreements.

I finally got around to playing this and it was…pretty fun? One nice aspect is that somewhere into the narrative, the protagonist realises how bullshit it all is and just becomes increasingly annoyed and sarcastic with everyone, in a way that is just the right side of the line straddling ‘entertaining’ and ‘obnoxious’.

Wow. Welcome back!

Hah thanks. The old login didn’t work, wasn’t sure if anyone would remember me :)

Glad to hear its not totally bad, I hope to play it someday. :)

Also how much beef have you eaten in 8 years?

More than you’d think!

I’ve been alternating it with Call of Cthulhu, which is more of an adventure game. Both games have a protagonist who is similar on paper - washed up alcoholic ex-something investigating stuff in a decaying town. Sinking City has more fun with the premise; CoC is a more serious take. I’ve enjoyed both so far.

The STEAM version of this does include all story dlc, I saw multiple posts on the Steam forums confirming it.

Which Steam version? The old one that’s disabled for purchase, or the one you can buy now?

The new one on sale. I am playing now trying to get a to a point past the first mission where a DLC mission if it is in game, should present itself.

Really enjoying the setting and story in this so far. Sad there appear to be no steam achievements.

Yep dlc is in this, I just got a bunch of Mystic Tome dlc notes.

Still sucks the publisher and developer are still fighting over this game in court.

I liked my time with it. I think I got about 2/3 the way through on PS4. I should get back to it, dammit, I just hardly ever fire up that console. I did just pick up Dreams for the PSVR, though. Perhaps I should lay off the Xbox for a few.

Does anyone know if the PC version that Frogwares directs you to on Gamesplanet has the same enhancements and loading times as the PS5?

I’ve never seen this kind of video from an official account before:

The publisher also released a statement on the Steam page:

What’s also weird is Nacon still got it wrong.

Thus, this version contains only the base game, without any additional content.

Is not true. The version on Steam comes with the story DLC. It just doesn’t have the cosmetic and XP boosting DLC.

Edit: The video above from Frogwares even explains how the Deluxe Edition content is part of the files they allege Nacon pirated.