The Ukrainian studio Frogwares is going through difficult times - it risks forever losing the ability to sell games released by Focus Home Interactive on digital platforms.
Frogwares claims that publisher partner Focus Home Interactive is refusing to transfer titles back after contracts expire. According to an official statement from the developer, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments will be removed from Steam, PlayStation Store, and Microsoft Store on September 29 pending further developments. And three other games - , Magrunner: Dark Pulse, and Sherlock Holmes versus Jack The Ripper have already been removed from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 digital stores.
Frogwares marketing manager Sergey Oganesyan said the studio had tried to negotiate with Focus Home Interactive to transfer the names of the affected games several times since May 2019. According to the studio in an official statement, the publisher only responded last week, stating that it "will not transfer any titles - content ID or title ID - belonging to any developer who has removed all of their games from the Focus catalog." Frogwares says that this is the first time she hears this condition and never agreed to it.
The studio is currently negotiating with digital stores on this matter, but all procedures require the involvement of Focus Home Interactive.
Source: 3dnews.ru