It appears that CD Projekt Red has finally agreed to offer Andrzej Sapkowski, the author of original The Witcher book series, additional compensation. Late last year, Sapkowski demanded additional royalties of $16 million from the Polish studio, but the studio declined.
According to Wccftech, via Puls Biznesu, the studio has since changed their mind, and an “amicable settlement” has been reached to preserve a good working relationship between the two parties. However, the additional royalties will be far less than the $16 million Sapkowski originally demanded.
This situation concerning compensation between Sapkowski and CD Projekt Red has been a long, ongoing issue. When the licensing deal was agreed to, the author was offered a percentage of profits deal for the video game series, but declined in favor of a one time payment instead. Back in 2017 during an interview with Eurogamer, Sapkowski famously spoke about the original deal between himself and the Polish studio regretfully saying:
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.’ 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.
It will be interesting to see what is in store for the future of The Witcher series. A Netflix series based on Sapkowski’s books is currently in development. Last July, CD Projekt Red’s CEO Adam Kiciński stated that the studio wasn’t done with The Witcher series just yet. Since then, the studio has released Gwent: The Witcher Card Game along with single player campaign titled Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales. In the meantime, the studio is working on the highly anticipated RPG Cyberpunk 2077. However, one of the creative directors on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the head writer of Cyberpunk 2077 recently left the studio.