Witcher game studio inks new deal with author. What does it mean for franchise?

Followinga yearlong feud concerning compensation, CD Projekt announced today that it has inked a new deal withThe Witcherauthor Andrzej Sapkowski.

According to CD Projekt,this new agreement“solidifies and reinforces” the professional relationship between the developer and Spakowski and serves to clarify the “requirements and expectations of both parties.” More importantly, the studio confirmed that this new agreement allows it to retain its rights to any and all video games, graphic novels, board games, and merchandise based onThe Witcherintellectual property.

Late last year, Sapkowski demanded the company fork over $16 million in royalties for its use ofThe Witcherlicense after the franchise outperformed Sapkowski’s initial expectations. When Sapkowski originally agreed to licenseThe Witcher,the author wanted CD Projekt to issue him a one-time payment instead of providing him with a percentage of the game’s profits. “No, there will be no profit at all — give me all my money right now! The whole amount,” Sapkowski said in a2017 interview with Eurogamer. “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.”

Following its release in 2015,The Witcher 3: Wild Hunthas been met with both critical and financial success, making upmore than half of the series’ 40 million copies sold. Alongside a successful series of books and video games,The Witcherfranchise has also beenadapted into a TV show, with the first season releasing in December 2019 on Netflix, and asecond season announcedahead of the season 1 premiere. In addition to writingThe Witchernovels, Andrzej Sapkowski has also worked on other books, including the historical fantasy series TheHussite Trilogy.

WhileThe Witcher 3served as a conclusion to the story of Geralt of Rivia, CD Projekt has mentioned previously that ithas not ruled out a sequelto the series and that it was open to working on future projects set inThe Witcheruniverse. Currently, the company is working on a new video game IP calledCyberPunk2077based on the popular tabletop RPG game by Mike Pondsmith.