Focus Home Interactive Abruptly Delists Frogsware Titles Following Concluded Publishing Agreement
Typically when a game is faced with a delisting from any online storefront, majority of the time the result for the title’s removal is due to the licensed music for the game expiring and the developer and/or publisher does not decide to renew the contract with the creators of said compositions. We have seen it with Alan Wake before, but for developer Frogwares, this is a different story. This week the Kiev-based developer shared a statement on the current status for a selection of titles that the studio recently discovered to being delisted from platforms upon the ending of their publishing agreement with French publisher Focus Home Interactive. Frogwares in the statement posted shares that upon trying to claim the selected title’s content ID, was unable to do so despite this policy not being mentioned in any previous agreement between the two companies. “Some of our games are being removed from Sony’s and Microsoft’s storefronts, and even maybe from Steam,” Frogwares makes clear in their statement on Twitter. “Why? Because Focus Home Interactive, the licensee (or “publisher”) that was in charge of commercializing these games on these platforms, refuses to transfer the title IDs to us, the creators and IP owners of those titles, even though our Publishing and Distribution Agreement has expired.” Frogwares further in the statement shares that in the twenty years of the studio being an independent developer has never faced a situation as such. Here are the currently affected titles: The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes versus Jack The Ripper, and Magrunner: Dark Pulse. The current wellbeing of 2014’s Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments is, at the time of writing this, untouched across Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC. Frogwares does however stress that the game will face an imminent delisting from all storefronts this Sunday, September 29th. The Ukrainian developer says to already be setting up new store profiles for following the game’s removal, but is left unsure if Frogwares can undo the damage already inflicted by Focus Home Interactive. Sharing that the attempt to recover the games as well as updating their respected SDK is expensive alongside time consuming to do so. Regardless, the team announces to pursue resolving the issue that has affected their titles under Focus Home Interactive. This does also leave the question of what other games that the publisher will now delist as the company has funded projects for Frogwares most recently with The Sinking City all the way back to 2005’s 80 Days. More will unravel as this story continues to develop. Source: Frogwares
Listing For Grand Theft Auto III Surfaces Through Australian Rating Board
2001’s release of Grand Theft Auto III introduced the already controversial world of Rockstar Games’ steadily growing the series into the world of three dimensional titles as titles prior were top-down projects. The first installment for the new millennium truly kick started a new genre for open-world games that we are traditionally welcomed with now living in 2019. And now it seems that the near two-decade old title could be making a return for modern hardware. According to a new listing on Australian Classification, Grand Theft Auto III emerged on the Australian Ratings Board. Listed as a “multi platform” title, this leaves the implication that new hardware will receive a port for the game. Rockstar Games already released the game on PlayStation 4 back in 2015 alongside a slew of other titles under the New York publisher prior: not to mention mobile ports for Android and iOS also. As well as the PC already holding a version since the game’s launch, the two remaining culprits are pinned towards the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Looking that the game’s original release date is settled late this October, October 22, we could see the game emerge for new both Microsoft’s and Nintendo’s platforms in that area of time. While the game on Sony’s console is a direct port, at least 1080p support is predicted to derive from this potential release for more hardware. Did you own Grand Theft Auto III back when it released? Grand Theft Auto III is out now for PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC, Android, iOS, and PlayStation 4. Source: Australian Classification
