Tuesday, October 2nd 2018
The Witcher Author Andrzej Sapkowski Gets Sellers' Remorse, Wants $16 million from CD Projekt Red
Well, this was bound to happen sometime - but I expected it sooner, rather than as late as now. The Witcher series has become an incredible success in the videogame department, with each successive entry in the series becoming more and more of a masterpiece, culminating in The Witcher 3 - considered by many to be the ultimate RPG yet. The story for the games' development by CD Projekt Red goes way back to 2000, when the developers approached Andrjez Sapkowski on acquiring the rights to The Witcher, after a failed endeavor from another studio who had already bought the rights, but failed to deliver a game - Metropolis, which counted with Adrian Chmielarz (known for Bulletstorm, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter).
Andrjez Sapkowki's approach to the whole "games industry" informed his decision on how to sell the copyright to The Witcher series' and characters - with a "Well they brought a big bag of money! (...) What I expect from an adaptation: a big bag of money. That is all." And that is what he got, according to himself, though CD Projekt Red's co-founder Marcin Iwinski described it as "(not) a huge amount of money".
The author's stance on videogames as not being "worth his time" shouldn't have informed a business decision, however. Now, following the tremendous success of The Witcher series, the author seems to be growing less and less fond of the "big bag of money" he received - a clean, one-time-only sum pales in comparison to royalties pegged to the games' success and sales.
Of course, these sales and the incredible revenue that CD Projekt Red has derived form The Witcher series of videogames is partly - originally - due to the polish author's world and character building. However, I'd argue that most of the success stems from CD Projekt Red's focused, generous delivery and work ethics looking to elevate the bar ever further (much as they are certainly doing with Cyberpunk 2077). There have been a huge number of games with equally or even more interesting premises that haven't reached - and never will reach - the heights and bar set by The Witcher 3. And that's on CD Projekt's side of the table. As are, of course, the certainly very, very significant increases in book sales for the author in many western countries, which would never even have heard of his name and The Witcher series shouldn't the games have been created and achieved their own success.
The claim and CD Projekt Red's response can be read in the sources of this article; let it only be said, as way of summation, that Andrzej Sapkowski is looking for payment in the order of 6% of total The Witcher profits from CD Projekt Red; that he was looking to finish this deal with no pomp and circumstance and as quickly and quietly and possible; and that CD Projekt Red feels that its contractual obligations have been fulfilled. It may just be that CD Projekt's success offered way too many "big bags of money" for comfort.
Sources:
Andrjez Sapkowski's Claim, CD Projekt Red's response, via DSO Gaming, Eurogamer, Meeting Andrjez Sapkowski, Eurogamer, "Seeing Red"
Andrjez Sapkowki's approach to the whole "games industry" informed his decision on how to sell the copyright to The Witcher series' and characters - with a "Well they brought a big bag of money! (...) What I expect from an adaptation: a big bag of money. That is all." And that is what he got, according to himself, though CD Projekt Red's co-founder Marcin Iwinski described it as "(not) a huge amount of money".
Of course, these sales and the incredible revenue that CD Projekt Red has derived form The Witcher series of videogames is partly - originally - due to the polish author's world and character building. However, I'd argue that most of the success stems from CD Projekt Red's focused, generous delivery and work ethics looking to elevate the bar ever further (much as they are certainly doing with Cyberpunk 2077). There have been a huge number of games with equally or even more interesting premises that haven't reached - and never will reach - the heights and bar set by The Witcher 3. And that's on CD Projekt's side of the table. As are, of course, the certainly very, very significant increases in book sales for the author in many western countries, which would never even have heard of his name and The Witcher series shouldn't the games have been created and achieved their own success.
The claim and CD Projekt Red's response can be read in the sources of this article; let it only be said, as way of summation, that Andrzej Sapkowski is looking for payment in the order of 6% of total The Witcher profits from CD Projekt Red; that he was looking to finish this deal with no pomp and circumstance and as quickly and quietly and possible; and that CD Projekt Red feels that its contractual obligations have been fulfilled. It may just be that CD Projekt's success offered way too many "big bags of money" for comfort.
41 Comments on The Witcher Author Andrzej Sapkowski Gets Sellers' Remorse, Wants $16 million from CD Projekt Red
That being said, CDPR has shown itself in many ways to be much more a model of how developers and publishers should act and produce their products. They could continue their good guy image by making a nice gesture and offer him a settlement for much less than he is trying to sue for.
I tried looking for number for his book but couldn't find anything except that "The Last Wish" was in "New York Time BestSeller" during the release of The Witcher 3. I think he should be thankful more that greedy. CDPR success has kicked off because of him and his success is international because of CDPR. They owe mutual respect, and maybe CDPR could offer a realist counter-proposition.
This video here goes into the whole thing a little deeper.... Its the letter from Andrzej's lawyers to CDPR
Note how they are threatening to bad mouth CDPR and create a 'negative shitstorm' surrounding them on social media and all across the internet if they fail to comply and give grumpy guts the money 'He is owed, that he deserves'
Andrzej's lawyers wanted to deal with the situation quietly but since CDPR is a public company, they put it on their website.
Its nothing but extortion at this current point in time.
I recommend everyone to give the video a watch,
Go pound salt Sapkowski.
That said, I'm not sure that CD Projekt RED is on very good financial footing right now. They got a government grant to finish CyberPunk 2077. Would they be asking for grants if money wasn't an issue? They bet the house on finishing that game and it being a commercial success. I'm fairly confident that even if they settle with Sapkowski for as little as $2 million, they wouldn't be able to write a check for that amount and not have it bounce. Sapkowski's settlement will undeniably come out of revenue generated from CyberPunk 2077, not Witcher. If it does go to court, CD Projekt is going to bring that up. Case in point: if the original agreement was for 6%, CD Projekt may have documents showing that they wouldn't have made Witcher 2 because they couldn't afford that much extra royalty cost.
Anything is possible at this point.
. www.cdprojekt.com/en/wp-content/uploads-en/2018/08/key-financial-data_h1-2018.xlsx
“As of the end of June, 2018, the Group held cash, cash equivalents and other monetary assets valued at 607 897 thousand PLN (From the report, 607,897 thousand, with all monies in thousands), and had no outstanding debt under any credit or loan agreements.”
That’s 162 million dollars. They got a grant (which is only $7 million), from an initiative for gaming companies because they could, just like businesses do in the West...because it’s there. I think they are fine.
You forgot about their constant revenue stream of GOG, which was set up to give them steady income between projects, just like Valve did with Steam.
He may have a case, by that wording.