Andrzej Sapkowski Demands More Money

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Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski has demanded that CD Projekt pay him more royalties for the game license. If you remember he hates games, and is jealous of it's success.

He was also stupid to sell the rights for a small cash amount.
"They offered me a percentage of their profits. I said, 'No, there will be no profit at all - give me all my money right now! The whole amount. It was stupid. I was stupid enough to leave everything in their hands because I didn't believe in their success. But who could foresee their success? I couldn't."
Link - https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...ccessfully-demands-more-money-from-cd-projekt
Link - https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/investors/regulatory-announcements/current-report-no-15-2018/
Subject: Receipt of a demand for payment submitted on behalf of Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski

Legal basis: Art. 17 of the Market Abuse Regulation _MAR_ – inside information
The Management Board of CD PROJEKT S.A. with a registered office in Warsaw, Jagiellońska 74, hereby announces that on 1 October 2018 the Company received an official demand for payment filed by plenipotentiaries of Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski.

The notice indicates that Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski expects payment of additional royalties beyond what had been contractually agreed upon between himself and the Company. The contents of the notice are attached to this report.

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.

In the Company’s opinion receipt of the abovementioned demands meets the significance criterion due to the identity of the person submitting the demands.
I sense we might see a future legal battle.
 
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Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski has demanded that CD Projekt pay him more royalties for the game license. If you remember he hates games, and is jealous of it's success.

I'm not sure it's "hate games", he seems more "old generation", very stuck in his views, socially a bit inept ( with interviews), and people often interpret what he says literally. And takes a bit of swill on the side, if you know what I mean.

Though, this is funny. Maybe they should pay him with free Gwent cards?
 
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I'm not sure it's "hate games", he seems more "old generation", very stuck in his views, socially a bit inept ( with interviews), and people often interpret what he says literally. And takes a bit of swill on the side, if you know what I mean.

Though, this is funny. Maybe they should pay him with free Gwent cards?
Maybe but he always had something bad to say about the games & players in every interview. Like I said above he was stupid to sell for such a small amount.

Now that the trilogy made billions he just wants a bigger cut.:greedy:

He might even have a legal case as someone on another forum mentioned he only sold the rights for the first game. Who knows but this is far from over it seems.
 
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He sold the rights for games and he even added:
"I was stupid enough to sell them rights to the whole bunch," he says. "They offered me a percentage of their profits. I said, 'No, there will be no profit at all - give me all my money right now! The whole amount.' It was stupid. I was stupid enough to leave everything in their hands because I didn't believe in their success. But who could foresee their success? I couldn't."
 
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To be honest I'm on cdprojek side. When I saw the title of the thread I was thinking if he asked nicely it would be a good move to give him $500K or 1M. But given the nasty letter I'm not sure I'd give a dime.
 
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I don't know what he got for the new TV series, but I dare say it's a heck of a lot more now that CDPR has turned the IP into a household name.
 
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... and that's the reason why you artist types must have a good agent.
You'll do the creative fart, they'll do the biz shit.

Yeah, capitalism sucks, but you must play by its rules.
 
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You can't blame the guy for trying...but I don't think he'll be entitled to more (unless the law is very different there).

You can't say they defrauded him, THEY didn't know the games would be that massively successful. And they even offered him a percentage which he rejected for an up-front amount.

Part of me says screw him, but the bigger part of me kinda hopes cd projekt continue being the overly generous good-guy developers that they are and just throw the guy a bone. Maybe not a 16 million dollar bone...but something.
 
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The irony is that CDPR were probably keen to offer him a percentage, rather than having to come up with a chunk of cash as a tiny studio. He didn't think they were worth betting on, and demanded the cash instead. End of story, IMO.
 
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You can't blame the guy for trying…but I don't think he'll be entitled to more (unless the law is very different there).

You can't say they defrauded him, THEY didn't know the games would be that massively successful. And they even offered him a percentage which he rejected for an up-front amount.

Part of me says screw him, but the bigger part of me kinda hopes cd projekt continue being the overly generous good-guy developers that they are and just throw the guy a bone. Maybe not a 16 million dollar bone…but something.

I agree with this and I too wish CDP give him bit more money even though he is not entitles to it.
 
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I agree it would be nice it they gave him a small settlement out of good faith, but lets be real they are a business first. Sapkowski signed over the rights for a small lump sum.

So deal concluded and CDP payed the cost. Now Sapkowski wont be the first or last person to lose a lot of money on a bad deal over royalties, and lump sum payments.

Just look at what happened to the creator of DOS and Bill Gates. Just one example.
 
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And the early Star Wars movies. Almost no one took percentages, at least not the guy who voiced Darth Vader (he was paid $1000 and went and bought groceries because he was broke) It's the luck of the draw in those cases.
 
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Sutherland
Sutherland also had a role as pot-smoking Professor Dave Jennings in National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978, making himself known to younger fans as a result of the movie's popularity. When cast, he was offered either $40,000 up front or two percent of the movie's gross earnings. Thinking the movie would certainly not be a big success, he chose the 40K upfront payment. The movie eventually grossed $141.6 million.[21]
Choices and consequences.
If Sutherland wasn't an asshole later, a guy who stopped being yet another anonymous writer should thank ones who made him worldwide star instead of turning into a common beggar.
 
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Sutherland

Choices and consequences.
If Sutherland wasn't an asshole later, a guy who stopped being yet another anonymous writer should thank ones who made him worldwide star instead of turning into a common beggar.

Yep, agreed.

This was the choice he made. A percentage, or cash up front. He chose the latter.

Now he's regretting it because of lost potential? I don't think you have a right to complain if the choice you made was short term gratification over a long term one.

Why not look at what he does have instead of what he doesn't, like the numerous awards and recognition as a great writer, a roof over his head, etc?

I really can't see this going well for him if it becomes a legal dispute.
 
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I suspect the strategy is to get a settlement from CDPR, to get rid of publicity around the idea of the author being hard done by. I think it's actually quite cynical.
 
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Ronald Wayne was the third co-founder of Apple. He was basically Steve Jobs mentor and he was a voice of moderation between the two Steves in those first few years. He basically sold back his stock to them and told them, "it was their company" then moved to the desert. Later he regrets selling the contract where he did that for $12k.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote the screenplay for Goodwill Hunting and pitched it around Hollywood. Finally they got some investors and it made over $100m. They investors gave them their $100k apiece but never bothered with the traditional bonuses given out for hits in Hollywood. That not only got them a lot of sympathy in Hollywood, someone gave Ben Affleck an Oscar.

George Lucas hired Alec Guinness for Obi Wan after Toshiro Mufini declined, believing he wasn't right for the role. George couldn't afford to pay upfront for the veteran actor so Alec suggested a percentage of the gross seeing even though it was going to be a small kids movie. Sir Alec regretted to his dieing day this role with the public having forgotten his tremendous previous work.

Perhaps Bruce Bethke can join Andrzej in a class action.
 
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I don't know what he got for the new TV series, but I dare say it's a heck of a lot more now that CDPR has turned the IP into a household name.

Maybe he did not believe in the TV series success either? :biggrin:
 
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AllJaggedAardwolf-max-1mb.gif


Should've went with royalties.
 
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