CD Projekt RED - Fought the Publishers and Won

PCGamesN reports on how CD Projekt RED came to gain their independence.

As the biggest publishers and developers gathered in LA for E3, CD Projekt’s founders were in Agoura Hills signing the most expensive signature of their lives. They returned home the same week to Poland to announce a deal: THQ would promote and distribute The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 in Europe. Another victory for the onetime industry outsiders who decided to make RPGs.

Marcin Iwiński escaped to England for “nine days of Zen”. Michal Nowakowski holidayed in Thailand with his wife. And neither of them was the slightest bit aware that another major publisher was busy preparing a court case against them.

 

“Boy it was an expensive signature,” says Iwiński 

“Very expensive,” agrees a wistful Nowakowski. “Probably the most expensive.”

This is the story of CD Projekt RED’s adventures in courtrooms around the world, though mostly in Lyon, France. A story that hinges on a single clause in a decade-old contract.

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