The Sinking City dev DMCAs its own game to force it off Steam, says it "may only be a temporary fix"

UPDATE 8:36pm: Following Frogwares’ decision to force the removal of The Sinking City from Steam via DMCA takedown, publisher Nacon has issued a lengthy response:

“Frogwares published an article on March 1st, 2021, accusing Nacon of having ‘pirated’ the game The Sinking City; Nacon hereby wishes to set the record straight regarding these unjustified accusations.

“Nacon is contractually the sole exclusive distributor of The Sinking City game on Steam.

“Nacon has contributed to the financing of development and the payment of royalties to Frogwares to the tune of 8.9 million euros to date (including the full payment for a version of the game for Steam), making the global investment far above 10 million euros when integrating the marketing costs. Contrary to Frogwares’ allegations, Nacon has paid all amounts due.

“Today, unless Frogwares is acting in bad faith, it has no reason not to make the game available to Nacon on Steam.

“In the past, Frogwares has improperly relied on accusations regarding a lack of payment to refuse delivery of the game on Steam, at which point they tried to unsuccessfully terminate the contract. The Paris Court of Appeal deemed this action ‘manifestly unlawful’; ordering the continuation of the contract and encouraging Frogwares to refrain ‘from any action which would impede such continuation’.