Gaming News

ERG89

A low quality video but if this leak is legit it looks very impressive and I'm not even a Harry Potter fan.

Mickeroo

A full RPG set in that world could be great, if that's what they're going for.

maximoose

Speculation it is Rocksteady behind it, this could be great.

Penn

maximoose wrote: »

Speculation it is Rocksteady behind it, this could be great.

Seems more likely to be Avalanche Studios from what I'm reading on Reddit. Rumours are Rocksteady are doing a full Justice League game.

Sonics2k

My kids are going to go mental if this turns out to be true. My daughter especially is going to lose the plot.

Because I'll be playing it and they can watch

J. Marston

The author of The Witcher books, Andrezj Sapkowski, is demanding royalties from CD Projekt Red. Apparently years ago when CDPR came after the rights they offered him a lump sum or ongoing royalties and he opted for the former. Now he wants the royalties, amounting to $16 million.

https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/investors/regulatory-announcements/current-report-no-15-2018/

Tough titties, in my opinion. Backed the wrong horse.

Gunmonkey

Yup, tough poop to him, he took the quick buck. Was about €9000 if I remember right.

Would imagine he is a bit more wary with the rights for the Netflix show and demanding percentages from it.

chrislad

J. Marston wrote: »

The author of The Witcher books, Andrezj Sapkowski, is demanding royalties from CD Projekt Red. Apparently years ago when CDPR came after the rights they offered him a lump sum or ongoing royalties and he opted for the former. Now he wants the royalties, amounting to $16 million.

https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/investors/regulatory-announcements/current-report-no-15-2018/

Tough titties, in my opinion. Backed the wrong horse.

Pretty much. I read about this a while back, that he had taken a lump sum, probably because he didn't understand games, and he didn't think his work would be as popular outside of Poland - two things to learn here - get a good lawyer, and good market research goes a long way!

I can't imagine he has a leg to stand on here.

Sonics2k

chrislad wrote: »

Pretty much. I read about this a while back, that he had taken a lump sum, probably because he didn't understand games, and he didn't think his work would be as popular outside of Poland - two things to learn here - get a good lawyer, and good market research goes a long way!

I can't imagine he has a leg to stand on here.

It's not so much that he doesn't understand games, he thoroughly dislikes video games and thinks they're beneath him.

He took the €9000 from CDPR thinking the game would fail and he'd make a quick buck. Frankly I hope CDPR win this one, The Witcher books are okay, nothing special at all. The Witcher 3 though is quite frankly a masterpiece of gameplay and story-telling.

gizmo

He may have a leg due to the clause in Polish Copyright Law that he's supposedly making the claim under...

In the event of gross discrepancy between the remuneration of the author and the benefits of the acquirer of the author's economic rights or the licensee, the author may request the court for a due increase of his/her remuneration.

Morally speaking? Nah, he quite happily took the money that was on the table at the time, benefited from the increased sales the games brought for his books and now has the Netflix deal to capitalise on.

Mickeroo

I'd say he's done pretty well out of the book sales and fiml/tv rights which are direct consequence of the game's success anyway. The books are only ok at best and would probably never have all been translated into English in the first place if it wasn't for the games.

This years hidden gem on PS4

Can't wait

Sonics2k

gizmo wrote: »

He may have a leg due to the clause in Polish Copyright Law that he's supposedly making the claim under...



Morally speaking? Nah, he quite happily took the money that was on the table at the time, benefited from the increased sales the games brought for his books and now has the Netflix deal to capitalise on.

Honestly not sure about Polish law, but I do wonder how this quote would go down.

“I was stupid enough to sell them rights to the whole bunch," he says. "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."

They literally offered him a percentage (apparently multiple times) and he turned it down (apparently multiple times) and decided to cash out quick.

Retr0gamer

The wording of the Polish law is quite vague so be might have a case. It will have to be argued in the court whether he is entitled or not but it looks like there's a case to be made.

EoinHef

A gesture/good will paymemt could go a long way here for CDPR.

He made his decision initially but givin the success of the series of games maybe some sort of private settlement with a few quid his way would do.

gizmo

Sonics2k wrote: »

Honestly not sure about Polish law, but I do wonder how this quote would go down.

They literally offered him a percentage (apparently multiple times) and he turned it down (apparently multiple times) and decided to cash out quick.

Instances of fraud aside, the law kind of reads like it was worded to deal with cases just like this. It remains to be seen whether a judge feels the same way of course.

EoinHef wrote: »

A gesture/good will paymemt could go a long way here for CDPR.

He made his decision initially but givin the success of the series of games maybe some sort of private settlement with a few quid his way would do.

He's demanding €14m though so I'd be curious what he'd consider a good will payment given their history.

Varik

CDPR weren't the big deal they were back then, it was in all likely hood going to be a bit of a failure and the first game before the enhanced edition (where the had their big free updates that they've continued with to today) made a huge difference. When the Sequel and it's expansion (with a console release) made them huge.

I read a collection of his short stories as someone in one of those letters that gaming magazines used to published said it was great and you couldn't judge the game without know it source material. I pirated the game and didn't play past that first castle area, so when I read that I went and bought the book.


If he was offered X and a % then asked for cash, and at the last minute decided he wanted krusty bucks that's on him.

earthwormjack

https://www.pcgamer.com/cd-projekt-rejects-demand-for-payment-by-witcher-creator-andrzej-sapkowski/

CDPR has responded to 'Witcher" creator Andrzej Sapkowski's demands. "They are groundless"

And I would agree. He took a lump sum and ran, thinking the games would be a failure and have 0 profit when he was offered royalties. Tough break, but I'm sure his book sales soared and there's now a Netflix show on the horizon as well. So it isn't like he's gonna be starving for cash or anything.

EoinHef

gizmo wrote: »

He's demanding €14m though so I'd be curious what he'd consider a good will payment given their history.

Ah ok,that changes things then. If hes going that hard from the start CDPR would be very justified giving him the middle finger.

I wonder had he approached them before going the legal route.

Also can imagine some legal firm looking at this thinking they can get a nice slice and encouraging him to take the case.

Legal profession are a bunch of w*****s:D

Penn

Would CDPR have gotten film/TV rights off him too though? I mean I would have thought he'd be in for a payday based on Netflix making the show, but if CDPR bought all the rights off him (not just game rights), then that's a hell of a deal done by them.

It'll probably be settled out of court and he'll get some form of cash settlement.

Sonics2k

Penn wrote: »

Would CDPR have gotten film/TV rights off him too though? I mean I would have thought he'd be in for a payday based on Netflix making the show, but if CDPR bought all the rights off him (not just game rights), then that's a hell of a deal done by them.

It'll probably be settled out of court and he'll get some form of cash settlement.

Just the video game rights. In fact his lawyers are claiming they only had the rights for the first game.

Varik

Penn wrote: »

Would CDPR have gotten film/TV rights off him too though? I mean I would have thought he'd be in for a payday based on Netflix making the show, but if CDPR bought all the rights off him (not just game rights), then that's a hell of a deal done by them.

It'll probably be settled out of court and he'll get some form of cash settlement.

Doubt they would have as they'd have no need for them.

Penn

Varik wrote: »

Doubt they would have as they'd have no need for them.

Then I'd wonder why he's going after CDPR for money from the games if he still holds the TV rights and will be getting money from the show. It was the game which almost definitely led to interest in the show and will attract the most viewers to it. He should be grateful. If anything, his short-sighted decision has still yielded big gains.

earthwormjack

Apparently CDPR offered him a royalty deal again after the witcher 1 released and he still refused. That game sold a few million by itself so I have no sympathy for Sapkowski if this is true. There's no source for this though, just seems to be getting mentioned a lot around the web.

Penn wrote: »

Then I'd wonder why he's going after CDPR for money from the games.

Because the trilogy has sold over 30 million copies I'd imagine. If he's looking for royalties on that it's an absolute fortune he missed out on.

Gbear

A good compromise might be royalty rights on future games.

It's probably worth their while keeping him sweet, even if he is a prick.

Taylor365

Gbear wrote: »

A good compromise might be royalty rights on future games.

It's probably worth their while keeping him sweet, even if he is a prick.

Think that bridge was burnt long ago!

raze_them_all_

Gbear wrote: »

A good compromise might be royalty rights on future games.

It's probably worth their while keeping him sweet, even if he is a prick.

No need to keep him sweet. He took a gamble and didn't believe in his own product. They shouldn't give him a ****ing dime and should sue for the cost of their legal defence and make him actually pay more than what they paid for the rights.

If I break up with a girl who ugly and fat and a few years down the line she's a model I don't get to go actually you owe me another **** cos I didn't think you'd become hot.


The guy who sold Victoria's secret for 4 million killed himself a few years later when the company was turning over 200m a year. Some people are never happy and are just greesy

earthwormjack

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

The guy who sold Victoria's secret for 4 million killed himself a few years later when the company was turning over 200m a year.

Something similar with Ronald Wayne. He sold his 10% apple share for $800. That would be worth nearly 100 billion today I think.

Rob2D

raze_them_all_ wrote: »

He took a gamble and didn't believe in his own product.

That's the big point in all this. As far as I remember he was finished with Witcher books by the late 90's and had moved on.

So when these young fans approached him some years later, he acted derisively towards them and their videogame and basically sold them something he didn't need or want anymore for a quick buck. He didn't believe in them nor more importantly HIS OWN WORK. He sold himself out.

CDPR probably would have been happier with a royalty deal really, because 9-10k would have been a decent chunk of money for a Polish company 15+ years ago. In fact if you watch the noclip documentary on it, they almost broke themselves making that first game. This was their booth at E3 2004:



They took that IP and made it what it is around the world today, not Sapkowski. In fact, I asked an older Polish friend last year did he know about "Wiedzmin" and he'd never heard of it before in his life. All that money belongs to CDPR not Sapkowski.

If he was any bit smart at all then after that first game was a hit he would have tried to cosy up to CDPR and do appearances for and hype up the games. Try to ride those coat-tails. But instead all he's done over the years is moan about it. I hope it gets thrown out of court.

It's like putting a kid you don't want up for adoption and then trying to make contact in their adult life after you found out they became successful.

As someone else posted above, it's just scummy and greasy behaviour.

Stone Deaf 4evr

Eurogamer did an interview with him a while back and he comes across as a bit of a grumpy aul cnut. I've read all the books, and while there are some genuine highlights and humor in them, a lot of it feels rushed, particularly the conclusion to the whole Ciri storyline, it all wraps up out of nowhere. i could put some of it down to possibly a poor translation, but poor structure is a different matter.