Earlier last week, we reported on the unfortunate delisting of Ittle Dew 2+ from the Switch eShop – which occurred in light of accusations against publisher Nicalis for its shady business practices. With fans now enraged at Nicalis’ actions, the publisher finally decided to defend itself with a new statement.

If you’ll recall, Nicalis had reportedly ghosted developer Ludosity before removing Ittle Dew 2+ from the eShop – despite promising Ludosity beforehand that they would help to transfer the game’s ownership back. In a new statement to USGamer, the company explained that it was “necessary” for them to do this – as some digital stores have no backend system to re-transfer rights to another owner:

“Our Ittle Dew 2 publishing agreement with Ludosity has ended. We’ve been in communication with the Ludosity team and the first-party platforms during the transition and attempted to transfer the publishing from Nicalis to Ludosity. The game was successfully transferred to Ludosity on Steam.

Unfortunately, not all storefronts have a backend system in place to transfer or “re-home” a game to a different publisher.

To abide by the terms of the original contract and Ludosity’s request to assume control of publishing Ittle Dew 2, it was necessary to delist the game on these platforms. We remain fans of Ittle Dew 2 and we wish the Ludosity team all the best in the future.”

Regardless of how sincere this statement is, Nicalis did not explain why it ignored communications with Ludosity before the delisting took effect. With Ittle Dew 2+ still unavailable for purchase on the Switch eShop (at the time of writing), the situation looks no less grim than before.

We’ll report back as we hear more about this story surrounding Nicalis. Stay tuned.