Andrzej Sapkowski, the author that wrote The Witcher books originally sold the rights for making The Witcher video games to CD Projekt Red for a fixed amount of money but now he seems dissatisfied with the deal as he asks for more.
Even though CD Projekt Red initially offered Andrzej Sapkowski a percentage of the games' sales in the future as a way to pay for The Witcher license, the latter refused and agreed upon a fixed amount of money up front. Now that The Witcher 3 broke pretty much every record there was to break and CD Projekt Red made it big, Sapkowski wants a bigger slice of the cake.
The author is now demanding that the company pays him $16.1 / €14 / £12.4 million in additional royalties. The same royalties he initially refused. CD Projekt Red seem to be aware of how ridiculous these demands are, as they have officially the demands on their website, in the same manner they did when they some people threatened them with leaking confidential Cyberpunk 2077 info.
CD Projekt Red stated that they refuse these terms but they might budge a little after all, as they want to keep on good terms with the authors of the source content their games are based on. There is no word of Mike Pondsmith complaining about his contract anywhere though, presumably because he turned out to be more investment-wise than Sapkowski.
Unfortunately for CD Projekt Red, Sapkowski's lawyer might have a case as article 44 states that "In the event of a gross discrepancy between the remuneration of the author and the benefits of the acquirer of author's economic rights or the licensee, the author may request that the court should duly increase his remuneration."
CD Project Red
It remains to be seen how the demands and the response from CD Projekt Red will continue in the future, but considering the nature of the company's post above, it is likely that they will settle for an additional amount to paid to Sapkowski, albeit not as much as he initially asked for.
Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Project Red, RPG in Cyberpunk 2020 universe
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