The Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski has demanded 60 million zlotys ($16 million) in additional royalties from CD Projekt Red, and the Polish game studio has politely declined.
In a report posted on the company's website, CD Projekt said it hopes to reach an amicable resolution with Sapkowski, but that it won't be dishing out any extra cash as it acquired the rights to the franchise legitimately and legally, and has already paid the author in full.
Sapkowski sold the rights to his book series to CD Projekt for an undisclosed lump sum in 1997, and (somewhat ironically) actually turned down a profit-sharing agreement at the time.
The novelist has since revealed he took the cash offer because he didn't believe anyone would actually buy the game -- a decision he's since accepted was rather foolish.
"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," he explained in a Eurogamer interview.
"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."
Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and The Witcher game series has collectively sold over 25 million copies worldwide, while CD Projekt is now worth over $2 billion.
JubilantFire on October 2nd, 2018 at 18:42 UTC »
Not only did this guy explicitly say he wanted his only payment to be in full, up front, because he thought the games were going to fail, but he also says the games are only successful because of the popularity of his books. So he doesn't know how agreements work and didn't believe in his books enough to say that the games would have been successful.
What the fuck is wrong with this dude.
Harflin on October 2nd, 2018 at 16:48 UTC »
Does he still get royalties on book sales? If so, I'd assume they went up because of the game's success. He should be thanking them.
theylfrd on October 2nd, 2018 at 16:04 UTC »
I heard he regretted not asking. He didn’t take the contract seriously so he didn’t really ask for anything.