Geralt_of_Rivia: That's a slander published by Frogwares that was debunked pretty much immediately.
Proof for that is that the game is still up on Steam despite being hit with a DMCA by Frogwares.
Dogmaus: I don't see how the cracked version being still on sale it's proof that's not been cracked.
Now you are mixing up different things that have no relationship to each other.
1) The game wasn't 'cracked'. Cracking a game means removing the copy protection/DRM. As far as I know the game didn't have any and not even Frogwares claimed that any protection has been removed.
2) The question is whether the game was 'pirated' (meaning, distrubuted without the consent of the copyright holder) or not. And the answer to that question is no, the game was not pirated. Nacon has a publishing contract for that game with Frogwares.
While Frogwares claims that Nacon has violated that contract and it is therefore void, Nacon denies that claim. So Frogwares has to go to court to prove their claim. And the court said the following:
This is the result of a decision by the Paris Court of Appeal on October 28, which ruled that by removing the game Frogwares "had terminated [its] contract in a 'manifestly unlawful' manner."
The court has said the contract must be continued until a decision has been made on whether Nacon breached its agreement, as Frogwares alleges. The developer has been ordered to refrain from any further action that would affect this contract.
Source That means until the final verdict on the case has been passed the contract is still valid so Nacon is within their rights to publish the game on Steam.
3) If you don't know what it means that Nacon's version still being sold on Steam after having been hit with a DMCA you don't know how the system works. The DMCA was designed to help get pirated stuff offline quickly. Anyone can DMCA any software without even having to prove that they own it and the distributor (in this case Steam) is legally required to take it offline immediately. Of course you are commiting a crime when you misuse the DMCA system to take something offline that is not yours. IIRC that was perjury.
Only after the DMCA'd work has been taken offline does the person who put it online get the chance to defend himself and prove that he has the right to distribute that work. Since the game got back on Steam within a few days Nacon was obviously capable of showing sufficient proof that they have the right to publish the game on Steam. Otherwise Steam wouldn't have allowed the game back.
On top of that: Frogwares claims that the case is very clear-cut. If that were true how come the courts haven't ruled in Frogwares favor yet after almost two years? And since the court order '... to refrain from any further action that would affect this contract.' was given to Frogwares even before the DMCA (The court order is from October 2020, the DMCA from February or March 2021) Frogwares even violated a court order.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they end up losing the case.
