CD Projekt RED - Resolves Issues with Witcher Author

Winter is Coming reports that the Witcher author has settled with CD Projekt RED over royalties.

So it got ugly there for a minute, but just recently, Polish newspaper Puls Biznesu reported that the parties have reached an "amicable settlement," meaning that CD Projekt Red offered Sapkowski more money if he'll just stop complaining. We don't know how much, but it's probably more than the original $9,350 lump sum and short of the $16.11 million profit share. Back when it was first responding to Sapkowski's demands, CD Projekt wrote that it wanted "to maintain good relations with authors of works which have inspired CD Projekt Red's own creations." With any luck, this will do the trick.

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So they caved in to persevere goodwill for future games when they legally didn't have to? Wonder how much they gave him as they said no to his original $16 million dollars.

Should show in cdprojekt next quarterly or annual sec filing. It might not be labeled as a specific event but the line item should be large enough to extract the meaning. My guess is a million or two.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
So they caved in to persevere goodwill for future games when they legally didn't have to? Wonder how much they gave him as they said no to his original $16 million dollars.

was he mad about how they interpreted the story?
or was it pure financial

Originally Posted by borcanu
was he mad about how they interpreted the story?
or was it pure financial

Financial. Sapkowski demanded more money, justifying that the agreement to allow CD Projekt to use witcher setting should apply only for the first game. CDP stated that they aquired the rights to use Sapkowski’s work in games developed by the company. Legally, they are right, they can make as many witcher games they want.

Looks like they ponied up and paid the fees that he wanted. Now we should another game at some point, I hope.

I could be wrong, but I don't think them paying Sapkowski has anything to do with them making more games with the Witcher IP. Like Odrid said, they weren't legally obligated to give him anything.

I think it was more of a good faith/PR thing. The initial $9,350 he took was embarrassingly little in hindsight, and even if they gave him another $1M, for instance, that's a drop in the bucket for them.

It's barking mad that he accepted that initial payment with no revenue share. It's not just that he failed to do basic math - he actually believed videogames were irrelevant as a genre/industry. Which is hard to understand given that, at the time of the first game's release, videogames in the US had already eclipsed Hollywood in dollar size.

He made a huuuuuuge mistake but who knew? I don't know if folks remember the original's development cycle and years of delay but it certainly wasn't looking good back then. THhs is definitely a PR move and a smart one. I'm sure a charge against the marketing budget. Shut him up.

I understand that they wanted to compensate the author as it is less trouble this way than a big media show in the courtroom. Not to mention being more fair than the guy deserves. A nice gesture indeed. I just think that it was his own foolishness of not beliving in videogames as a story telling medium.

Anyhow I do enjoy the witcher books as well witcher games, but this Sapkowski is not much of a people person… Witcher series has been translated a great number of new languages thanks to the success of witcher videogames. Many people who play witcher games, love also fantasy literature. A local library has ordered great number of copies of his books. As well book stores here.

Just because the author was foolish and shortsighted doesn't mean he shouldn't share in the staggering profits of the game. I'm glad they agreed to a settlement, whatever the motives.

Originally Posted by screeg
Just because the author was foolish and shortsighted doesn't mean he shouldn't share in the staggering profits of the game.

Hahahhahaha. Ah that was funny.

He was offered a flat rate or a % of profits. If he had taken % of profits he would have made 16 million; instead he chose a flat rate of 10k because he thought hte games would be a flop. After the fact when the game was a success he whined.

Originally Posted by borcanu
was he mad about how they interpreted the story?
or was it pure financial

Well, I'd have more sympathy if he'd been left high and dry, but their success has already transformed his tiny property into a major worldwide IP. I suspect he's doing just fine.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Well, I'd have more sympathy if he'd been left high and dry, but their success has already transformed his tiny property into a major worldwide IP. I suspect he's doing just fine.

Exactly no matter how many say the books are popular the games are even more so. Without them we wouldn't be having a Netflix series or it's worldwide appeal.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
So they caved in to persevere goodwill for future games when they legally didn't have to? Wonder how much they gave him as they said no to his original $16 million dollars.

Why do you think it's goodwill? Sapkowski does have a case according to Polish law (the relevant paragraph is quoted in the paper). Whether the judge would decide in his favor is of course not given, and the proceedings usually take years here, but Sapkowski risks nothing except for his lawyer costs. Which is why they might settle.

It makes perfectly good sense why they paid him, from a public relations point of view. Every dollar spent to that author is likely to return double or treble to them sometime in the future, karma is a real entity.

Polish law says he a right to sue even after making the mistake himself. He wasn't even taken advantage of he was just an idiot who hated games. Read his interviews.

Originally Posted by Charna
but Sapkowski risks nothing except for his lawyer costs

Fair point, although lawyer costs can be quite significant. And with his sub-optimal financial decision making skills… evidently…

I'm aware of how unpleasant he can be; he was well known in Poland even before the games and he was making offensive statements even then. I don't actually like him as an author. All of which is not relevant. I doubt CD Projekt were unaware of the relevant law when they made the deal. Instead of reading his interviews, read the few pieces by Polish lawyers on this; no one seems to be sure how it would play out in court. So they might just play it safe and settle, but it's got nothing to do with goodwill.