Witcher 2 Namco Bandai Sue CD Projekt RED Over The Witcher 2 DRM

Not only is Namco Bandai claiming that CD Projekt RED removed the DRM from The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings without permission, but they're also unhappy about THQ being named the publisher of the Xbox 360 version in Europe. So much so that they're withholding nearly $2 million in payments due to CDP, and suing them for what might result in further financial penalties. Giant Bomb reports:

When THQ announced it had obtained the European publishing rights to The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for Xbox 360, that apparently surprised Namco Bandai, who had signed a distribution deal with developer CD Projekt Red for the European release of the PC version.

Atari will be publishing The Witcher II on Xbox 360 here in the US. Complicating matters, Atari Europe was acquired by Namco Bandai in 2009, gobbling up Atari's European distribution.

Namco Bandai is also arguing CD Projekt Red broke its contract with Namco Bandai by removing DRM from the PC version of the game without its permission.

Naturally, Optimus and CD Projekt Red believe both are in the clear.

"Namco's claims are unfounded," reads the statement.

As a consequence of the lawsuit, Namco Bandai is withholding payments of 1,225,000 Euros (roughly $1.75 million dollars).

"In the opinion of the [Optimus] management board, Namco consequently claim the desire to continue cooperation in the distribution [of] CDP RED products after the recent release of games released on PC, due to the expected potential sales of this title for console Xbox 360," concluded the company. (Also, I blame Google Translate for the awkward phrasing.)

I'm not sure what to make of this. Even though DRM is universally hated by gamers, if CD Projekt RED really removed it without permission, then I suppose Namco Bandai has every right to be angry. Then again, it would be hard to make the argument that it negatively impacted sales.

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Adam Kicinski, CEO of CD Projekt RED said:
"As with most cases, we first tried to end the dispute peacefully. Attempts failed and because of this, we hoped that our partner would send the case to the court. The agreement that we signed last year, concerned only the distribution of “The Witcher 2″ for the PC. The records were carefully clarified to avoid any ambiguity.

Namco Bandai have options when choosing the priority of our distributor’s version of the Xbox 360. It could use, but not taken advantage of certain preferences. In this situation, we chose the offer that THQ made us.

Our financial situation is very good at the moment and the lack of a few million does not have any impact on current activities. Withholding of payments means only that after some time, our partner will have to give us the money.

I hope that the whole thing will end with a pre-litigation settlement. If it doesn’t, I am sure that we will win the case and then the loser will pay for our lawyers."

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Couchpotato said:

Seems Namco has a case for drm but as for publishing it was a deal only only for the pc. They did not pay or own the console version.

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Grimlorn said:

I wonder if Namco is referring to the week 1 patch that removed DRM after the release because that's the only thing that makes sense. All retail versions supposedly had DRM. Unless people have been reporting that the European Witcher 2 had no DRM. Maybe the Polish version?

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joxer said:

Since when you can withold payments just because you "feel like it" (and practically steal the money)? Pay up and only after that do sue whoever you want to.

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lostforever said:

I wonder how much money they made in Europe for the game given that $1.75 seems low. I guess my be that's part of the money rather than whole of it….

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