PlayWay took back the rights to Viking City Builder from the game's developers in exchange for writing off over a million dollars of debt
The Polish publisher PlayWay has resolved a conflict with the studio Titan GameZ, which was working on the city-builder with real-time strategy elements Viking City Builder. This was reported by the portal Puls Biznesu.
Viking City Builder
Below is a brief history of the conflict, according to Puls Biznesu.
- Titan GameZ has closely collaborated with PlayWay since its founding in 2020. The publisher owns 43.47% of its shares.
- Soon after its opening, the studio took several loans from PlayWay totaling 3.4 million zlotys (880 thousand dollars), promising to repay them by the end of 2023. The funds were intended for the development of games Viking City Builder and UBOAT: The Silent Wolf VR, but the amount turned out to be insufficient.
- In mid-2022, Titan GameZ once again approached PlayWay for financing but was refused.
- In August 2023, Titan GameZ held a shareholders' meeting where it announced it was in a difficult financial situation. It then adopted a resolution to save the studio, allowing the sale of any Titan GameZ assets, including Viking City Builder, without requiring PlayWay’s consent.
- PlayWay did not agree with this decision, so it sued Titan GameZ, accusing it of harming its interests. Ultimately, PlayWay succeeded in getting the resolution overturned.
- That fall, Titan GameZ found a certain Swedish investor willing to provide the studio with 1 million euros to settle debts and 3 million euros for the development of Viking City Builder as part of a "publishing partnership." PlayWay blocked the deal, calling its terms unfavorable. Allegedly, the investor planned to take 60-70% of the game's revenue, leaving PlayWay with almost nothing.
- On November 30, Titan GameZ released UBOAT: The Silent Wolf VR. The game was commercially successful, but despite this, the studio did not manage to repay PlayWay’s loans by December 31.
- After several disputes, in September 2024, Titan GameZ and PlayWay reached an agreement. PlayWay forgave the studio’s debt, which with interest had grown to 4.4 million zlotys (1.14 million dollars), in exchange for taking over the rights to Viking City Builder. They also secured the transfer of further development of the game to President Studio — the creators of Crime Scene Cleaner.
- When Viking City Builder will be released is unknown. Currently, the game ranks 78th on the list of the most wished-for projects on Steam. To date, Viking City Builder has amassed over 370,000 wishlists on Valve’s platform.
