Published , by Josh Hawkins
Published , by Josh Hawkins
Frogwares, the developer responsible for the Sherlock Holmes detective games, as well as this year's The Sinking City have issued an official statement via its Twitter to address a growing concern that some might have taken note of. According to Frogwares, publisher Focus Home Interactive - who has handled much of the studio's publishing over the past several years - is delisting and pulling the developer's games from stores.
The statement shared via Twitter reads:
Hello,
This letter is addressed to everyone who is interested in the video game industry, and wants to take a look at what's happening behind the curtain.
We are Frogwares, the developer of the Sherlock Holmes video games, and The Sinking City. We make detective games because it's our passion, and because it allows us to live off it.
But today, that is under threat. Some of our games are being removed from Sony's and Microsoft's storefronts, and even maybe from Steam. This list includes our titles like Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes Vs. Jack The Ripper and Magrunner: Dark Pulse.
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 agreement has ended.
Because, according to their official statement, sent to us only last week, “Focus has put in place a policy in accordance with which they will not transfer any title – the content ID or title ID – belonging to any developer which has removed all of their games from the Focus catalog”.
A policy that is not in any of our previous or existing contracts with Focus and that has never been applied to us in the past.
Because of that policy, our games will be taken down from all storefronts.
The statement continues on discussing the matter, and you can read it in its entirety by heading over to Twitter. We have yet to see any kind of official response to the statements from Focus Home Interactive. We'll be keeping an eye on this story to see how things play out. Hopefully we see a resolution coming together very quickly, as this is definitely a worrying situation for independent developers that rely on publishers like Focus Home to help get their games out there.