Author of the Witcher saga Demands At Least 60 Mln Zlotys Of Additional Remuneration

[Brooksie359]

2 minutes ago, Lathlaer said:

Considering that his works got the necessary exposure in English only after the game's premiere, I'd say a lot. He was translated before but not much in English.

 

Also, while I said that the Article 44 wording is clear and Sapkowski's lawyers may have right there, I no longer believe this is so cut and dry. I kinda ignored the spirit of that law which does carry weight in Polish jurisprudence and the spirit behind that particular article (and the whole Copyright and Related law actually) puts a heavy emphasis on protection of the artist (often beginners) who have no swing in negotiations against big publishers, record companies, movie distributors etc.

 

In that particular case CDPR was by no means in advantageous position against Sapkowski, He was already established as the most successful Polish fantasy writer and had the negotiating power over a small studio that had yet to make their own first game and made money mostly through distribution of western titles to Polish market.

Yeah that makes all the more shitty what he is doing because 10k was likely alot of money for them at the time and to go back on that deal is just dumb. You made them pay alot of money up front because you weren't interested in percent revenue which would have been a much better deal for the small game company at the start. He can't have it both ways tbh. 

[Misanthrope]

Meh. Considering how Projekt Red is now releasing a Gwent game (Not that one btw, another one) it seems just like timing. 

 

He probably made a bad deal and yes, it was probably because of his unapologetic arrogance in dismissing any media that isn't books.

 

However here's my controversial bit: Witcher 1 was hot fucking garbage when it comes to actual story compared to the books and Witcher 2 was not far behind since it was just an in-between game to set up 3 and undo all the garbage from Wticher 1 (A strange parallel to Dragon Age btw down to being released the same year)

 

Witcher 3 is the one that really captures people with the stories and such and it's because it's the first one that takes direct queues from Sapkowski's world not only continuing his plot but staying more close to his style. So for all his fucking arrogant asshole behavior, Witcher 3 couldn't have been what it is without Sapkowski.

[Trixanity]

19 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Witcher 3 couldn't have been what it is without Sapkowski.

Yeah, works based on books couldn't exist without the books. That's usually how things work. That's why they paid the guy his price for the right to his work.

[samcool55]

Well, a contract is a contract and it is what it is.

If he wanted something else he should have negotiated for a better deal, but then again he was offered a percentage of overall profit or sales or whatever which is imo what he should have done, but he didn't.

Seems to me he had the chance for a better deal but ended up going after a quick cash grab and regrets that now but that's live i guess...

[Shch00r]

As @Lathlaer mentioned above, Article 44 is to protect the creators, written with beginners in mind, nonetheless it gives Sapkowski a leverage against CDP. I'm really curious how the story will unfold - I don't remember a precedence like this in Poland.

 

The whole thing reminds me the story of G.I.Joe creator, Stanley Weston vs Hasbro.

[Bcat00]

I really do like the Witcher as a game, but the story itself loses my interest to be honest

[IhazHedont]

The guy literally never believed in the game success nor the studio itself and now he's trying to get some money back ?

 

It's just a douche move imo.

[Shch00r]

Here's interesting part from the Witcher documentary. In Polish, but there are English subtitles:

 

[yian88]

Did he not sign already an agreement? a certain percentage of revenue? then it doesnt matter that he got greedy all of a sudden. Unless their agreement expires and they have to renegociate then he can ask more but i doubt he will get 6% of revenue LOL.

[Sauron]

21 hours ago, Maslofski said:

the additional exposure of his franchise

"exposure" is a bullshit excuse to avoid paying authors. In this case, if he signed a contract he probably has no right to ask for more, but it's not because of the "exposure".

[Shch00r]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

"exposure" is a bullshit excuse to avoid paying authors. In this case, if he signed a contract he probably has no right to ask for more, but it's not because of the "exposure".

But I guess it may have significant impact on how much he will be paid if he wins the case. Netflix wouldn't do the series if it wasn't for CDP's work. CDP and Platige Image (visual effects company that was cooperating with CDP on cinematics) people are involved in the creation of the series.

[Sauron]

17 minutes ago, Shch00r said:

But I guess it may have significant impact on how much he will be paid if he wins the case. Netflix wouldn't do the series if it wasn't for CDP's work. CDP and Platige Image (visual effects company that was cooperating with CDP on cinematics) people are involved in the creation of the series.

I'm sure Netflix have their own contract...

[Shch00r]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

I'm sure Netflix have their own contract...

Absolutely agree. I'm only talking about CDp's work impact on Sapkowski's exposure in the lines of "Hey, if it wasn't for us, you wouldn't get this deal with Netflix.".

[Sauron]

26 minutes ago, Shch00r said:

Absolutely agree. I'm only talking about CDp's work impact on Sapkowski's exposure in the lines of "Hey, if it wasn't for us, you wouldn't get this deal with Netflix.".

That's beside the point though, CDPR doesn't get to choose what the author should accept as payment. If they hadn't paid exactly what was written in the contract, they couldn't say: "oh well, we don't need to pay you the rest because we gave you exposure". CDPR also undeniably made a lot of money from this, so it's not like they were doing the author a favour.

[Maslofski]

4 hours ago, Sauron said:

"exposure" is a bullshit excuse to avoid paying authors. In this case, if he signed a contract he probably has no right to ask for more, but it's not because of the "exposure".

its not an excuse to not pay, they offered, he denied. but the exposure clearly had an impact on sales

[ravenshrike]

13 hours ago, Sauron said:

"exposure" is a bullshit excuse to avoid paying authors. In this case, if he signed a contract he probably has no right to ask for more, but it's not because of the "exposure".

Exposure is a bullshit excuse to avoid paying authors in the first place yes. However, when the author in question not only chooses an immediate payout over a percentage to a company that is significantly less well known than him and then further refuses in any way to be involved in the creation of the games in a paid position after multiple overtures on the part of the company he licensed the rights too, and only later after the company in question has turned his work into a massively popular game series comes back and says "Hey, I want more money", the exposure and money that that popularity brought to his book series is a perfectly valid thing to point to. It would be amusing if this did go to court and the Polish courts awarded him the sum of 1 zlotny.

[Lathlaer]

Here is a kicker to this story. 

 

Apparently there was more than one contract signed.

 

This is translated from an interview with Adam Kiciński (CEO of CDPR):

 

Quote

The company has made a valid and lawful purchase of the rights of Mr. Sapkowski's works in the range necessary to use them in the company's games. Of course we have settled all compensation resulting from those contracts.

I will add that there were several contracts which were signed between 2002 and 2016

 

There you have the other side of the story - there was more than one contract and in fact they have been signing additional deals spanning all the time between way before the premiere of the 1st game and up to one year after the premiere of Witcher 3. One has to assume that at some point Sapkowski had to notice that they are making more money than he expected and had numerous occasions to renegotiate. 

[bitsandpieces]

 

[Okjoek]

IIRC The English pronunciation is "Zwoty" because the L with the cross through it makes a W sound.

 

Now who here can pronounce my last name?

 

Korczakowski

[ElZamo92]

On 10/2/2018 at 10:42 PM, asus killer said:

If i was in charge of CD i would pay him some more because i mean that sum he received is ridiculous and its the decent thing to do.

But it would be stupid if someone could force them to pay more, a deal is a deal, live with it.

I think they shouldn’t even give him a pebble. The dude could have gotten the royalties CDPR offered him from the beginning but no, games are a trash story telling medium that wouldn’t make him an money, so he settled for about $10k. He signed the contract and got paid the amount both parties agreed to, there’s no room for discussion.

[PocketNerd]

On 10/2/2018 at 5:10 AM, Maslofski said:

fuck that, the additional exposure of his franchise and additional sales from it, not to mention the existing payment, should be enough

This comes to mind (http://theoatmeal.com/comics/exposure)

[Maslofski]

18 minutes ago, PocketNerd said:

This comes to mind (http://theoatmeal.com/comics/exposure)

yeah, only that this is the exposure that actually works, not the up and coming rapper with 3 soundcloud followers that needs a cover exposure

[RejZoR]

This my friends is when greed takes over. Apparently he didn't expect The Witcher to become such a success. But now that it has, he wants not one piece of a pie, but like 15 of them. That's not how things work. If you agreed for a fixed sum, that's it. If you agreed on a % from every sale, then that's a different thing. Apparently he opted for the first option. Tough luck pal.

[Phentos]

So basically he sold the rights to a then-unknown game developer (CDPR) for a flat sum only, and now that the franchise has exploded in popularity mostly thanks to the games, he's now crying for moar moniez?

 

Sorry bro, that ship has sailed for you. No sympathy here.

[Jito463]

This is real life, you don't get do-overs for making poor life choices.  Made a bad choice?  Tough noogies.