Andrzej Sapkowski, author of
The Witcher series of novels, has demanded 60,000,000 PLN from CD Projekt RED, creators of the video game adaptations for his works. According to Sapkowski, he was short-changed during licensing agreements made back in 1997 - licensing agreements he apparently keenly agreed to at the time. Sapkowski sold the gaming rights to his series for less than $10,000.
The Witcher is not the only video game series based on novels as the
Metro series has spawned its own, albeit less popular, game franchise.
Metro 2033 creator Dmitry Glukhovsky has never hidden the fact that his deal has been quite profitable for Ukrainian developer 4A Games and himself. In a recent interview with Russian outlet DTF, Glukhovsky decided to address Sapkowski's claims.
According to
Ostrog's translation, Glukhovsky said that he looks at Sapkowski as ‘’
an old fool.’’ The novelist also stated that Sapkowski ‘’
f**ked up,’’ and that the reason for his $16 million lawsuit against developer CD Projekt RED is due to his ‘’
wife [nagging] him about it in the evenings, and [then] he tries to roll it back.’’ He ended this part of the interview by calling Sapkowski "
an ungrateful schmuck."
In his rant, Glukhovsky also noticed one interesting aspect of the whole situation, as the Polish author's lawsuit may harm the ongoing Netflix project (starring
Man of Steel’s Henry Cavil in the lead role), who, as he points out, isn't very fond of legal issues. In CD Projekt Red's latest financial report, the company confirmed that they are not planning to pay Sapkowski the aforementioned money. Take a look: