Stone Age Stardew Valley-like pulled off Steam

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The developer and publisher are allegedly in dispute over Roots of Pacha

Roots of Pacha
(Image credit: Soda Den)

Stardew Valley-like Roots of Pacha has been taken offline over a dispute surrounding the rights to the game.

Having launched just recently on PC, Roots of Pacha is basically a blend of Stardew Valley, but set in the Stone Age, providing a chill farming sim from long, long ago. As first reported by RockPaperShotgun, the new game has been delisted from Steam and taken offline last week, with developer Soda Den alleging publisher Crytivo had Roots of Pacha removed.

In the statement above, the developer claims to have been in a dispute over the rights to Roots of Pacha with the publisher. According to Soda Den, during the dispute, Crytivo went to Valve directly and requested that Roots of Pacha be removed from Steam entirely, a request which Valve fulfilled. 

However, the developer reassures eager Roots of Pacha players that it's still working away on the game during the dispute, and will have a full post-launch roadmap ready for presentation next month in June.

Hours after the statement above, Crytivo provided a statement of their own. The publisher now claims that two days after launch last month, Soda Den notified Crytivo that their agreed-upon revenue-sharing contract terms for Roots of Pacha were effectively void, and terminated.

Crytivo says that it's Valve's policy that where there's a dispute between two parties on a game, said game will be removed from Steam until the dispute is resolved. Soda Den is alleging Crytivo had Roots of Pacha removed deliberately, but the publisher says it's merely Valve's policy over a dispute.

Soda Den, for their part, says they're "cautiously optimistic" about the situation surrounding Roots of Pacha, while Crytivo says that they're working with both Soda Den and Valve to get the game back on Steam. 

Our recent Roots of Pacha impressions deemed the new game to be an absolutely enthralling blend of Stardew Valley melded with the Stone Age.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.