Eurogamer has conducted an interesting interview with the man who penned The Witcher novels, Andrzej Sapkowski, talking at length about his humble beginnings as a travelling salesman, the Witcher video games, and beyond. During the interview, he reveals how he was approached by Adrian Chmielarz (Bulletstorm, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter) among other developers for the games until CD Projekt RED came along with a good proposal and “a big bag of money.” Unfortunately for him, however, he underestimated how well the adaptations were going to perform.
Sapkowski admittedly didn’t care about video games. He left the studio to do whatever it felt best, and as the titles started hitting store shelves and earning critical acclaim, it made CD Projekt RED immensely popular. As a result, some people think Sapkowski is writing novels based on the games, not the other way round. “It was f***ing bad for me,” he said. “It happened. I can remember my reaction: I know many bad words and I used all of them, in many languages.” He’s evidently worried about people recognizing the games more than his work and name. But there’s another problem: Sapkowski doesn’t get a penny out of the profits that the games make.
I was stupid enough to sell them rights to the whole bunch. They offered me a percentage of their profits. I said, ‘No, there will be no profit at all – give me all my money right now! The whole amount.’ ...