The Witcher is one of the most successful series of RPGs on the market currently. Based on Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, the games have managed to captivate gamers worldwide.
However, it has long been known that Sapkowski is not a fan of video games, and that he never believed in The Witcher video games to begin with, foregoing royalties and demanding an upfront payment so that he could cash out and not have to deal with the games’ impending failure that he felt sure was going to come. That upfront payment? $9,500, according to Sebastian Zieliński, former and original head of CDPR.
While it’s a shame that he never got to reap the benefits of the games’ success directly, he really should have negotiated a better contract to begin with. Plus, the ongoing success of the games led to wider international sales and recognition for the books, which must have made him money. And hey, it also led to the Netflix TV show, which he is involved with- so in the end, the games’ success ended up working out well for him after all. If only in a really roundabout way.