CD Projekt Red and Andrzej Sapkowski Seem to Reach a Settlement

October last year, some bad blood brewed between CD Project Red and polish author Andrzej Sapkowski over the Witcher games: specifically, because when the two parties first negotiated the terms of letting CD Projekt Red use Andrzej Sapkowski’s IP, he chose to take a flat payment over a percentage of sales due to a genuine lack of faith in the project. He lost millions as a result and tried to sue CD Projekt Red for $16.1 million USD (well, the Polish equivalent) for the money he was owed. CD Projekt Red fought back, and their lawyers have been trading barbs since.

However, it seems CD Projekt Red isn’t willing to lose their golden goose because it wants a cut of its own eggs, and they just now announced that they’re close to reaching a settlement with the grumpy Pole: they’ll give him money. The exact sum was not disclosed, but from what we understand, it was far less than what was being asked but far more than they’re obligated to give.

This makes sense. They’re on record as saying they’re more-or-less done making stories that revolve around ol’ Geralt, but between spin-offs and cameos, they’re still making money hand over fist thanks to the Witcher series. It's only natural they’d want to stay in the good graces of the guy who ultimately controls it. Especially since the series is due to get another shot of popularity when it’s ultimately turned into a Netflix show (which, for the record, Andrzej Sapkowski has a lot more faith in that project. Maybe he learned his lesson).

I’m not sure if you’d call this a happy ending, considering it’s a bunch of rich people fighting over sums of money most of us won’t even see in our lifetimes, but I’m at least happy things ended amicably? We like pacifist runs, ya’ll.