It appears that developer CD Projekt Red has relented to the demands of The Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski, after the latter threatened legal action late last year. Sapkowski claimed that he wasn't given enough compensation for his intellectual property when he gave the rights to CD Projekt Red in order to create a game. The developer fired back, stating that the author was given the chance to have a percentage of the profits, but he believed the games would not sell well, so he took the initial flat fee payment, which was about $9,300. After a few months of discussion, the two entities have come to an agreement, with CD Projekt Red offering an undisclosed amount to Sapkowski to make sure he'll remain on good terms with the company, though it is nowhere near the originally requested $16 million.

In the Company’s opinion the demands expressed in the notice are groundless with regard to their merit as well as the stipulated amount. The Company had legitimately and legally acquired copyright to Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, i.a. insofar as is required for its use in games developed by the Company. All liabilities payable by the Company in association therewith have been properly discharged.

It is the Company’s will to maintain good relations with authors of works which have inspired CD PROJEKT RED’s own creations. Consequently, the Board will go to great lengths to ensure amicable resolution of this dispute; however, any such resolution must be respectful of previously expressed intents of both parties, as well as existing contracts.

Source: (Polish)
Translation via wccftech

 

[warweeny]

"though it is nowhere near the originally requested $16 million."

Then how much is it? lol
i cannot find that in the article.

 

[Chary]

"though it is nowhere near the originally requested $16 million."

Then how much is it? lol
i cannot find that in the article.

It's undisclosed, as stated in the article. It's not known what the amount is, but the source was told by CD Projekt that it wasn't close to $16 mil.

 

[Arras]

"though it is nowhere near the originally requested $16 million."

Then how much is it? lol
i cannot find that in the article.

"an undisclosed amount". We don't know.

 

[Xzi]

Fuck that guy. He's really negative about video games in general, and he didn't expect the Witcher games to do decent sales, so he sold the rights for cheap. Then when he saw everybody buzzing about TW3 on the internet for so long, he came back to demand more money. If anything, he should have to pay an idiot tax to CDPR.

 

[Kioku]

While it's good on them for trying to stay in the authors good graces? I'm more interested to have seen how far the legal battle could have gone.

 

[KingVamp]

Not sure how I feel about this. I mean, they were willing to pay him anyway, so no one really lost. All this mess could have been avoided, if he just took the offer.

 

[Jayro]

Wow... He cried like a baby, and they eventually bent over like bitches. I just lost a lot of respect for CD Project Red.

 

[Chizko]

He won and Internet was wrong...like always...

 

[Ericzander]

This is how a lot of cases involving big properties like this go.

If Sapkowski sued I assume he wouldn't be able to win on any contract claim and would likely have to pay attorney's fees.

But it was worth more to CD Projekt Red to keep him happy than it was for them to go to court and get out of his good graces.

This reminds me of Arrested Development. The Netflix season sucked so the director remixed it in a way that made it flow better. The remix resulted in more episodes. But the actors threatened to sue because they were only paid for a certain amount of episodes but not the additional ones created by the remix.

If the case went to court, I doubt the actors would have won. But they settled outside of court because the director didn't want to piss them off and risk them not wanting to come back for another season.

Same case here. Give the crying baby some money to make him shut up and continue to be willing to work with you in the future.

 

[Minox]

Wow... He cried like a baby, and they eventually bent over like bitches. I just lost a lot of respect for CD Project Red.

Why would you lose respect for them? I can understand losing respect for the author, but for them it was likely better to stay on good terms with him for potential future ventures.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

He made a wrong decision a long time ago. Happens in business. He sold the rights to his series to a company he thought would fail, and so demanded an upfront payment over royalties. They overwhelmingly succeeded, and of course he's going to regret it, but there's not much you can do. How many investors do you think are wishing they said yes to a young Larry Page or Jeff Bezos when they were seeking funding for their new startups "Google" and "Amazon"?

 

[Deleted User]

Given how many games are out there and how few can hope to reach The Witcher’s level of success the author was right to believe the games would fail. I’d also be fucking pissed off if I lost millions over an unlucky decision.

I’m not trying to excuse the author’s behaviour but rather explain it.

 

[eriol33]

geez cd red project are being nice. they shouldn't pay more than what stipulated by the legal agreement. after all it's legal.

 

[Super.Nova]

He's already lost respect of the entire gaming community while CDPR got more.
Whatever the settlement, hope it was worth it for him.

 

[mario5555]

While it's good on them for trying to stay in the authors good graces? I'm more interested to have seen how far the legal battle could have gone.

Except in CDPR's eyes it was cheaper to offer a decent sum, shut him up and move on to the new game.

The Witcher is probably about done anyway, so they have nothing to lose by throwing some money his way other than good press saying they did right by the creator.

Dunno why someone said they folded, better to come up smelling like a rose than looking like a piece of ****.

 

[hamohamo]

Fuck that guy. He's really negative about video games in general, and he didn't expect the Witcher games to do decent sales, so he sold the rights for cheap. Then when he saw everybody buzzing about TW3 on the internet for so long, he came back to demand more money. If anything, he should have to pay an idiot tax to CDPR.

actually i'm sure if he agreed. he would've gotten more than that 9300 from the first witcher alone.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Except in CDPR's eyes it was cheaper to offer a decent sum, shut him up and move on to the new game.

The Witcher is probably about done anyway, so they have nothing to lose by throwing some money his way other than good press saying they did right by the creator.

Dunno why someone said they folded, better to come up smelling like a rose than looking like a piece of ****.

just because they're making cyberpunk doesn't mean they're done with the witcher. the witcher is basically a safe bet and we'll probably see spinoffs in the upcoming years.

 

[BORTZ]

This only works out in CD's favor. This makes the author look like a twat and Red looking like saints. Anyone who has a little semblance of Polish copywrite law would know that Red is under no legal pressure to pay him AT ALL. At least as far as it has been explained to me.

 

[guisadop]

"We'll pay you x million dollars to fuck off"

That's basically what they've done lmao.

 

[eyeliner]

As long as CDPR keep doing a good job, stays healthy financially, I'm ok with it. They didn't behave like idiots, and I like that let me get a few more games from them.

Everybody won in this case. I'm happy. Are you all happy?