Frogwares was founded in 2000 in Ukraine and Ireland by French expatriates.[4] Waël Amr is the CEO. The name "Frogwares" comes from the derogatory term "froggies" to designate people of French origin.[4]
When it was created, the studio was made up of a team of six people which then expanded to reach eighty employees in 2018.[1] The studio specialized in the Sherlock Holmesadventure games series.
With Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Persian Carpet (2008), Frogwares began to develop casual games. The studio created in 2011 a dedicated subsidiary, Waterlily Games. The casual games produced by the studio are often distributed exclusively for download, with the exception of the "Sherlock Holmes" casual games, which are also published on physical media.
In 2010, Frogwares released World of Battles, its first multiplayer MMORTS. World of Battles is a strategy game that takes place in a fantastic medieval universe where the player trains and controls an army and must succeed in defeating other armies controlled by other players to recover gems.
In 2013, Frogwares opened a second subsidiary, 3AM Studios, to release Magrunner: Dark Pulse (2013), a strategic sci-fi shooter based on the magnetization of cubes and platforms to move through each level. The game is considered a Portal-like.
In 2014, Focus Home Interactive announced a Call of Cthulhu game developed with Frogwares, however both later separated.[5]
On 24 February 2022, Frogwares posted on social media about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how it has affected the development team.[6] They have published a series of similar messages since.[7]
Casual games are developed under the name Waterlily Games. This sub-studio is focused on casual, hidden object, and light adventure games for PC and iOS.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Persian Carpet (2008)
The studio has encountered several disputes with its business partners. In 2002, the distribution of the game Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy was made by intermediaries who did not pay the studio honestly: Frogwares filed several lawsuits against them.[4]
In 2019, Frogwares claimed Focus Home Interactive was not the publisher of the games, but a distribution intermediary that did not participate in the financing of games.[8] The relationship between the two companies ended in a dispute in the fall of 2019 when Focus Home Interactive's license ended. The situation has resulted in the temporary withdrawal of most Frogwares games from these platforms. The development studio, who remains the sole owner of the rights, had to initiate new certifications and online publishing processes for each of its games so that they are available again on the websites concerned.[8] The games thus reappeared gradually at the start of 2020.[8]
In a blogpost from August 2020, Frogwares alleged that Bigben Interactive (now Nacon) used their The Sinking City IP inappropriately and therefore terminated their contract with Bigben Interactive and withdrew the game from download platforms.[9] In January 2021, the game was restored to stores by court order as the contract was terminated in a 'manifestly unlawful' manner.[10] Frogwares had urged users not to purchase certain versions of The Sinking City, such as the version that was returned to Steam, stating these versions were not created by them.[11] On January 2, 2024, Frogwares announced that they became the sole publisher of the game for all platforms, resolving its legal dispute with Nacon.[12]
^O'Connor, Alice (8 March 2016). "The Sinking City: Frogwares' Lovecraftian Investigation". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 5 November 2019. The Ukrainian studio, best known for their Sherlock Holmes investigate 'em ups, had been working on a Call of Cthulu game for publisher Focus Home but… well, another studio is doing that.
