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
