The Sinking City - Steam Page Up
 

The Sinking City is again listed on Steam according to PCInvasion. Apparently the reason the game was not available on Steam earlier, despite the Appeal ruling, was due to the Epic exclusivity deal period which has now expired. The game is not currently available to buy.

More information.

It has neither price listed nor the option to put in on the cart.

I hadn't noticed that. I have adjusted the newsbit.

I played through TSC when it was originally released. Not bad but nothing mind-blowing. It's worth it for Lovecraft fans, but don't pay full price.

Here's a short review I wrote.

https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/show…post1061576157

Looking forward to getting it! Love what I have seen so far, but as a Lovecraft fan though as JDR13 stated.

Quick, buy this gem before they lose the court case and it's pulled again!!

If you do buy it, I strongly recommend getting it with the Necronomicon DLC pack. This added lots of mini-quests (small side investigations) and even a boss fight which the main game lacked. I was skeptical originally, but I felt it really enhanced the game, and can be played as you explore throughout the game.

As for the game itself, I felt the "open world" element was a real let down, as was much of the combat. The Sherlock Holmes games (with which it shares a lot of DNA) were a bit more focussed and were better for it. That being said, as a Lovecraft fan, I enjoyed it all the way through, but it felt "padded", and strangely empty outside of the core story beats.

And it’s gone from Steam again. Did not manage to see a price and be able to buy it. Oh well.

Interesting. Perhaps the court ruling was overturned?

Well it's still available and on sale right now at Origin if anyone is interested.
https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/sto…y/interstitial

Man what a clusterfuck this situation with The Sinking City has turned out. I received notification from Steam that it was back on sale, so I quickly jumped at it and bought it at 60% off. Anyway, just 10 mins I see a message update from steam, written by the devs apparently, saying that the copy that is currently being sold on Steam is not sold by Frogwares, and to not buy it.

How are Frogwares able to post message updates to not buy it, on the same game where the publisher, I imagine, has control to sell it? What a clusterfuck.

Well, they are listed as the developer on the Steam Page, so they may have access to the Steam page, that the pulbisher can't bar them from. They may also control the forum, as this is more often in the hands of a developer than a publisher.

Not only that, but apparently it's an inferior version.
From a user:
"This is an old version of the game. There's no DLC, no cloud saves, no achievements,… This is NOT the same version that got released by Frogwares early Janurary".
Jeepers, publishers can be scummy.

I'd probably refund it until the mess gets sorted out. That version has no DLC and apparently doesn't even support cloud saves.

*Edit* Damn you Shagnak. Why you posting the same time as me? ;)

Oh, right. I didn't think about that. That's fantastic. There's open battle on steam. What a mess.

I'm afraid to do that, since I'm imagining it may never come back? :D
Should I refund it? I'm thinking about it.

Indeed. https://twitter.com/Frogwares/status…85278140133378
"Frogwares has not created the version of @thesinkingcity that is today on sale on @Steam. We do not recommend the purchase of this version. More news soon."

It's getting silly, with low blows from either Frogwares or their publisher, Nacon. I don't think alienating the customers will profit either of them, so short-sighted.

Remember… it'll always be available in one form or another. ;)

Yeah, I've I'd bought it in good faith on Steam, and got an inferior version, I'd have no hesitation in sorting that out.

Yeah, indeed. I'm refunding it.

News like this does not inspire good faith with publisher Nacon. It also raises some red flags about upcoming RPG games from developer Spiders who's now owned by them.

Werewolf The Apocalypse - Earthblood another RPG published by them is a mess as well.

No, indeed.

The behaviour of Frogwares is also a little doubtful, maybe not here but in what happened before. It's so hard to see clearly in this though, they may just be honest, but naive and childish in their reaction. Adults lawyer-up, settle and that's it, nothing to see (but sometimes that's expensive).

So it's decided, you'll try to get a "safer" version instead? I see it's still on sale, but their Twitter had a lot of comments from disappointed customers. The reactions seem mostly in their favour.

Many say the PS5 version is the one to get.

When grown-up children are put in charge of companies, you get things like this.

And the worst of all is that they don't think of the repercussions that it will have in all of the employees, the reputation of the brand, and even the end-user, to whom they are delivering an inferior product. Just gather whatever scraps you can get no matter how it impacts anyone else, since there is a chance you'll get some cash out of it.

The cavernous pits of human morality. Just so shameful.

Yeah, I'll let things clear up.

Well the warning from Frogware has been removed from the Steam page, so its looks like the publisher, in their haste to sell the game, neglected to think of removing Frogware's access to it.

The first time I went to work for a big corporation, I was expecting it to be an impressive and intimidating organisation, full of smart people doing smart things all day. It wasn't. It was well stocked with narcissists, bullshit artists, grifters and incompetents. The smaller firm I'd come from was far superior in terms of organisation, management and leadership.

It's one of the reasons I'm very skeptical of the corporate world. It's not that they're run by a cabal of cigar-smoking evil geniuses - it's that very often they're like headless chickens, behaving very counter-productively.

This is also why I find funny all those conspiracy theories with people thinking NASA is consorting with aliens and has us all fooled, and the Illuminati run the world from behind the curtain. We humans aren't that smart, if there is a world-wide undercover plot going on, the public will know in the snap of a finger. I mean, we know when certain president of the US got a blowjob from a helpdesk, you'd think that if there was any greater minds in charge, that would have been something swept under the rug and the helpdesk would have had an unfortunate "accident".

People are people, and the ones are the top have the same chances of being idiots as everyone else.

In every organization that grows large, and this applies to both the state and corporations, a lot of mediocrity, incompetence and lazyness can hide in the bloat. People are indoctrinated to think this only happens with the government. But it's very much the same with any big corporation. You remain shocked at the amount that goes unchecked. And usually, if the corporation still functions somewhat, it's because of a few key people that keep it working. Oh, and lets not forget ruthless competition between employees, in some companies that encourage that. Where small tribes constantly are at each others throats.

But a different evil can be found in smaller organizations, where optimization and maximizing efficiency and productivity rules, and the small time employer pretty much skins their employees alive with micromanagement and excessive work. Of course this can also happen in big corporations, especially in areas of operation where this can be enforced (see amazon, and their warehouses).

I've read some horrifying stories on Jeff Bezos' way and the conditions of the employees at Amazon. Perhaps it has improved, and perhaps it's exaggerated, but it must have been a debilitating place to work!

Yeah, growing is difficult, what used to work doesn't work anymore regardless of the structure, people adjust their own agenda, it's getting harder for the top to keep a clear view of the situation, decisions are getting more localized and isolated… There have been many theories and studies these last years on how to manage it, yet it's hard to spend some time to take a step back and analyze the next steps when one is growing, key people are turned outwards (to the market) rather than inwards (to the organization). Changes only happen through retroaction, and thus, too late.

Just before Bezos stepped down as CEO, Amazon was caught stealing tips from independent drivers. They had to pay around 60 million dollars if I remember correctly.

And it's not just Amazon. In one of HBO's Last Week Tonight or however it's called, they covered the working conditions for workers in meat factories in the US. Basicaly, it's a sweatshop. Just like it was reported with Amazon, workers there wear adult diapers to not need to leave for the restroom, to meet their quota.

I think Amazon's and Google's abortive attempts to enter the games business are great examples of the sort of thing that goes on. They simply had no idea what they were doing, and if you read the reports on how Amazon handled it, you can really see how they thought they could apply the logic of a glorified shipping company to the business of making games. Resulting, of course, in a total faceplant.

Makes Frogwares and/or Nacon look like angels.

@danutz_plusplus I suppose you saw it, they sell it at -15% on https://store.frogwares.com/ (actually on Gameplanet), without DRM hassle. Still more expensive than on Steam but less than Origin, and it seems legit since it's directly linked on their website. If all that hasn't dampered your enthusiasm, that is ;)

Doesn't seem to be there at the moment, at least not for me. I get a message saying "Sorry, you're not permitted to view this product at this time."

Strange, here it's still there, perhaps another regional limitation or a temporary downtime.

It leads right here: https://fr.gamesplanet.com/game/the-…wnload--3911-1

EDIT: and the US version :) https://us.gamesplanet.com/game/the-…wnload--3911-1

Funny how the price in EUR and USD is exactly the same, while the rate is not 1:1. Has always been the case but I've always found that illogical.

Has anyone played it and have an opinion of it, in particular the story, atmosphere, choices and consequences, combat, are there any rpg elements.. etc?

I played it and it was kind of mediocre….. I usually really like the frogwares games (played all sherlock holmes games)…… and I enjoy Lovecraft…… but i really loathed the shoot-em-up aspect of the game…. could only stand it with a trainer supplying me with unlimited ammo….

There are RPG aspects lite (experience points to increase health / use different weapons or grenades etc) but for me it played like an action adventure….

Does it actually show the game when you click on the US link? It shows when I go to the French page, but the US page is still giving that same message. I don't know why it would be available for someone in Europe and not for someone here in the US.

The atmosphere is good, combat is pretty average. There's very little C&C. It's basically your average action-RPG.

Like I've said before, I think it's worth playing for Lovecraft fans, but don't pay full price for it.

I think you are so wrong. Amazon is what its inventor wanted it to be: a learning entity. Bezos forced his managers to throw money at everything imaginable and trying to get a foot in the door of any business you could imagine. If they don't make it to the top three in a few months or years Amazon just kills the division. They have the perfect culture of failure over there - think of the fire phone. Never throw good money after bad money. Go for gold or go home. Pure genius.
They will drop their gaming division sooner or later, but they will come back as another "Netflix for games" by licensing the content from devs who are finally fed up with STEAM and the yet-another-sale-around-the-corner economy they have installed.

And I think they will succeed.

Yes, it shows the game:
https://i.ibb.co/wJdyrFV/image.png

At the bottom of their page, there's this: Gamesplanet is a trademark of Metaboli SA, France (Europe). So maybe they have an problem with US traffic and they don't process it correctly, because it make no sense you can't get this item from the US and I can get it from Europe. Perhaps you could contact them if you're interested, chances are they're unaware of this.

I'd be pretty surprised if they weren't aware of it by now. This is what I get…

[IMG]https://i.ibb.co/JqZy47K/Gamesplanet.jpg[/IMG]

Over here in NZ I get a normal purchase page. Gamesplanet must be commies!