It appears that the writer of The Witcher books, Andrzej Sapkowski, is demanding $16 million from CD Projekt RED, beyond what had been contractually agreed upon contract. From the looks of it, Sapkowski never believed that The Witcher games would be such a success and as such, he did not originally agreed for a percentage of CD Projekt RED’s profits. Instead, he sold the rights for a video-game for a fixed sum. However, and now that these games have sold millions, the writer wants a piece of that cake.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen authors selling their IPs for pennies, in both video-games and movies. And it all comes down to the contract that Sapkowski and CD Projekt RED signed.
CD Projekt RED claims that 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. ”
According to the demand, Sapkowski’s and CD Projekt RED’s clause is unconditionally binding and it may be invoked when the compensation remitted to the author is too low given the benefits obtained in association with the use of that author’s work.
Furthermore, the original deal is said to be only for the original The Witcher game, and not for its sequels. The demand suggests that “careful reading of your contracts concluded with the Author might lead one to conclude that, if the company did effectively acquire any copyright at all, it concerned only the first in a series of games, and therefore distribution of all other games, including their expansions, add-ons etc., is, simply speaking, unlawful.”
Remember that CD Projekt RED has acquired the rights for a Cyberpunk game based on the Cyberpunk 2020 novels, so the aforementioned statement may also apply to that game too.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
This guy is full of envy and greed. He didn’t believe in cdpr and sold the rights without any royalty (he’s also dumb). And now that the games are huge success he wants a piece of the cake. Ridiculous.
Agree lol
Then you don’t understand business. There was a contract. He CHOSE not to get a percentage, instead wanting to be paid upfront. SO they drew up a contract and that was that. Now the games did FAR better then he thought and he want’s to get paid. Too bad. It’s like playing the lotto at work. And there is one guy who doesn’t want in. And then your lotto pool wins the big one. Now buddy who wanted nothing to do with the lotto pool is suing because he’s pissed he didn’t make a different decision in the beginning. Too BAD!
Here comes another “clickbait” article.
God damn greedy ba**ard, its his fault for not realizing his content worth. He kinda ruins his own image with these greedy tryings to get millions lol.
Not to mention that I guarantee this guy has had his book sales increase due to the popularity of the games. Therefore unless he is a HUGE moron and doesn’t get royalties on his own books, then he will have already gained a benefit from the games doing so well.
Yes games did made sales for the books
I don’t know ANYONE who read those books before the games.
He has a Netflix TV deal now.
People know his name.
He’s f*ing RELEVANT because of CDPR.
Even if they had given him $0.00 for the licensing deal, it was a good deal for him.
Andrzej Sapkowski sues the company who respects his works and remain faithful to his world and made his work international but praises Netflix who sh$ts on it !!!
He hasn’t sued them, and it’s unlikely he can even do it without it getting thrown off court.
He actually has a good chance of winning. Keep in mind these are not US laws.
They even invited him in the studio where he told them “NO THIS IS NOT WHAT THE WORLD SUPPOSE TO LOOK LIKE” and they had to redesign the map.
to be fair, they really f**king strayed from the books
the witcher 1 was a lot more in-lines to the book in terms of design than 2 and 3
(which got westernized hardcore)
CDPR legally purchased the license for an upfront payment, Sapkowski himself has said that he was stupid for refusing their offer of a % of their profits.
“From the looks of it, Sapkowski never believed that The Witcher games would be such a success and as such, he did not originally agreed for a percentage of CD Projekt RED’s profits. Instead, he sold the rights for a video-game for a fixed sum. However, and now that these games have sold millions, the writer wants a piece of that cake.”
Where is CDPR fault?
I wonder if Andrzej Sapkowski made same mistake with Netflix Witcher TV. lol
He sold the rights cheap because he didn’t believe in CDprojekt, still they offer him royalties but he just wanted a low upfront payment, Witcher games get more and more successful, Witcher 3 is a tremendous success and the imbecile realize how much money he lost and waited 3 YEARS to sue/complain, what a pathetic clown.
I bought some AMD stock when it was $4 a share and sold it when it
went to $10 a share because I didn’t believe it would go any higher and I
made a very nice profit. Now the stock is trading for $31 a share. Does
AMD owe me anything for the mistake I made?
Of course not. This guy Sapkowski made a business deal back then that he was happy with and now he sees that he was wrong but that’s life.
Andrzej apparently doesn’t know how contracts work. That’d be like if the first Witcher game failed so CDPR asked for some of their money back for paying for the license.
lol Ok there, Andrzej. Next time, know what the hell you’re signing.
Can we blame filthy pirates as usual,Mrs. Kim???
You need to learn something from Mrs Rowling how to handle your creation,Andrzej…
lol they don’t need to give this cuck anything. If the game didn’t exist no one would know who the f*ck this guy and what he does.
Sap always needs money
in unrelated News Megaman 11 has [you guessed it]
Denovu
when will these Nips learn that DRM only affects customers?
he should Netflix for trying to ruin the franchise
as for CDPR, he dun guffed
should’ve went for percentage, for good things come to those who wait.
Only Darth Vader gets to alter the deal!
CDPR should sue him for royalties gained after the game made the books known outside Poland
How old is that guy anyway? Doesnt he have enough money?
i demand $16m to dont forget about me…..i just demand it.
He does make a valid point that the license agreement where for the Witcher 1. Unless CD Project Red can prove otherwise. I believe he would win a lawsuit.
Sapkowski should be thanking CDPR, without them putting the Witcher name on the map globally he wouldn’t be making Netflix money.
@JOHN,
An update on this issue. Kindly go through all these links. Witcher author has reportedly settled his royalty case with CD Projekt.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt/andrzej-sapkowski-witcher-royalty-demand
https://www.techpowerup.com/252251/the-witcher-author-andrzej-sapkowski-reportedly-settles-with-cd-projekt-red-for-less-than-he-bargained-for
https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/the-witcher-cd-projekt-sapkowski-mehr-geld,3340195.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
https://www.pb.pl/cd-projekt-i-sapkowski-blizej-zakonczenia-sporu-951931