CD Projekt Red Denies EA Buyout Rumors

[RedRockRun]

Well this certainly had me worried. I'd hope that CDP's strong morals which we've seen in the past would be enough for them to never accept any offers by EA. Then again, if EA wanted to, could they not just buy a controlling interesting in the company? Is that legal? I'd think CDP being Polish and EA American would be enough to muck that transaction up, but I don't know anything about these things.

 

[Uhuru N'Uru]

When CD Projekt Red was on the verge of bankruptcy, with Witcher 2 unfinished, was the time Publishers would have tried to buy CD Projekt Red out.
Instead at great risk,CD Projekt Red sold only the US Disk publishing rights to Warner Brothers, who forced it to have DRM.

{SideNote}
The DRM free GOG version wasn't pirated as many people think. The DRM disc version was.
Why?
Cracking groups gain loyalty and fame by actually cracking DRM. Not releasing DRM free games. Of course DRM free only games will still get pirated, but when it's a choice between an anonymous upload or a known and respected groups release the group release is chosen.
Witcher 3's Discs are DRM free and appear more like a simple distribution contract than the usual Publisher deal.
{End of Side Note}

Now that gamble has paid off and they are more successful than ever.
It's the best time to sell any company as far as profit is concerned, but the money first mentality would have sold out before risking bankruptcy.

CD Projekt Red have consistently shown profit is not their main motivation or even the secondary motivation.

CD Projekt Red's main motivation is to be the best Developers they can be and being also players of games.

With GOG as they're distribution platform they and any other independent Dev Team using GOG need no publisher deal at all.

So forget any sell out deal, EA want something from CD Projekt Red as they are the visitors and though I'm sure they want to buy it all, it unlikely to be the reason CD Projekt Red agreed to meet.

Two obvious subjects are new EA games on GOG and a disc distribution deal for Cyberpunk 2077 and/or a Gwent standalone.

A deal involving all of these option is also possible.

We have no knowledge of anything else CD Projekt Red may have planned and can only guess beyond those options.

 

[Goliath100]

No, EA can't by CD Projekt Red. That would ruin my cruel joke about a team up with 4A for a Stalker sequel.

 

[Genocidicles]

Uhm, why would EA want to buy CD Projekt?

They could be trying to get their hands on GOG, maybe retool it into the retro section of Origin.

 

[Jadedvet]

I like to think this ended with the EA reps being thrown into a deep pit.

 

[Ralancian]

CD Projekt Red are not successful because of their consumer friendly attitude towards DRM/DLC they are successful because they made by far the best game of the year (barring any late entries). I strongly suspect The Witcher 3 would of been just as successful had they been terrible in those departments.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

Actually CD projekt was in talks with ea to buy out ea.

my first thought exactly...

 

[Mikeybb]

EA's not really an 'evil' company *snipped*

They have evolved beyond our foolish concepts of morality.
Theirs is a way that cannot be understood by mere gamers.
Only those dedicated unto EA by the unholy sacrament of 'investing' shall be inducted into the deeper mysteries of the order.

EA is not one company.
It is legion, for it is many.
Beware!
EA may take other forms!

 

[Elfgore]

That employee's wording kinda worries me, he never said a buyout wasn't happening. He just said it wasn't happening now.

 

[VladG]

HOGODITsokay... Phew!

Now I'm just going to go to my happy place and picture the well scene from 300 with EA execs instead of Persians.

 

[Veylon]

CD Projekt has stock. Any company that has stock can be taken over by anyone willing to buy up the stock. If that happens, it doesn't really matter what the management thinks; they can all just be fired.

The only companies I can name off the top of my head that don't have this vulnerability are Steam and LEGO.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Man, EA doesn't even have to do anything to get people to rail against them anymore. They just have to maybe think about doing something.

 

[F-I-D-O]

What would make more sense is EA trying to purchase/negotiate GOG rights or a possible physical publishing deal for the Heart of Stone/other expansion disk release. There have been EA games on GOG since 2011, but there could be talks to put more EA games or modern games on GOG. EA giving more strength to another Steam competitor only benefits them, as they'd be able to control the overlap between GOG and Origin.

Now wouldn't make a lot of sense to even really do talks on selling, since Cyberpunk 2077 has been on freeze and Witcher 3, a sold and finished product already past it's (perceived) most lucrative period is finished. CDPR takes a long time between projects, buying now trying to invest on current goodwill doesn't make much sense, especially with the next project being so different.

A single employee saying he saw EA execs around and that means they're getting bought out doesn't make sense with the current development situation, and really isn't supported by anything except a really big publisher wanted to visit a very popular developer to at the very least get face time for publishing negotiations. Microsoft probably visited the studio in 2012/13/14 to negotiate for the gwent cards and Witcher at their press events.

 

[F-I-D-O]

CD Projekt has stock. Any company that has stock can be taken over by anyone willing to buy up the stock. If that happens, it doesn't really matter what the management thinks; they can all just be fired.

The only companies I can name off the top of my head that don't have this vulnerability are Steam and LEGO.

Funnily enough, they're stock's actually dropped slightly today. Not saying it's as a result of the news or because the studio's been fairly quiet, but it's an interesting coincidence.

I'd be willing to beat though that the founders and upper executives who understand their company have decent amount of stock, making a buyout from a third party taking the majority at least difficult, albeit not impossible.

 

[Atmos Duality]

CD Projekt has stock. Any company that has stock can be taken over by anyone willing to buy up the stock. If that happens, it doesn't really matter what the management thinks; they can all just be fired.

The only companies I can name off the top of my head that don't have this vulnerability are Steam and LEGO.

Funnily enough, they're stock's actually dropped slightly today. Not saying it's as a result of the news or because the studio's been fairly quiet, but it's an interesting coincidence.

I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't coincidence.
The stock market is driven heavily on fear and speculation; has been since the 1920s.

Incidentally, I suspect that's why big publishers like Acti-Blizzard, EA and Ubisoft will occasionally let their figureheads chime in with some anti-consumer rhetoric (Bobby Kotick's job before they muzzled him): It's not to browbeat their customers (well, not entirely), but to reassure their shareholders that they're looking out for them first.

I'd be willing to beat though that the founders and upper executives who understand their company have decent amount of stock, making a buyout from a third party taking the majority at least difficult, albeit not impossible.

And probably far too costly at this juncture. This isn't the EA of 2007, this is the EA of 2015; the EA that's suffered repeated batterings to their public image and coping with the horrific inflation of project budgets (marketing and production alike).
Compared to then, EA's game lineup is far less diverse, and today more people hate their branding to boot.

EA isn't sinking any time soon courtesy of FIFA and Madden, but the rising costs of their more ambitious projects restricts their ability to just buy out and drain the competition like they used to.

 

[Tradjus]

You know, one thing to keep in mind is that E.A and C.D Projekt would certainly both deny any discussion over a potential buyout, regardless of what stage those negotiations were in. So him denying it doesn't actually MEAN anything. The only way to really know whether or not it's going to happen is to wait and see.

 

[FoolKiller]

My guess is maybe EA wants to buy the witcher license.

 

[Strazdas]

CD Project Red is a studio. It cannot be bought or sold without its owners permission, which is CDP.pl (yes the .pl is actually part of the name, silly companies). They are a local distributor of physical media as well as owners of GOG. CDProject Red owns 5% of CDP.pl stock, most likely as a capitalization stunt.

CD Projekt has stock. Any company that has stock can be taken over by anyone willing to buy up the stock. If that happens, it doesn't really matter what the management thinks; they can all just be fired.

The only companies I can name off the top of my head that don't have this vulnerability are Steam and LEGO.

not true for any company. many companies that are publicly traded leave 51% of stock for themselves so hostile takeover would not be possible.

when it comes to CDP themselves, the people in the company (like the creative director for example) own a lot of shares, however as far as i can see it does not add up to 50% so it is technically possible. but EA would have to muscle out other companies such as Nordea (one of the largest european banks) and that aint cheap.

There are a lot of companies that are not publicly traded, actually.

CD Projekt Red are not successful because of their consumer friendly attitude towards DRM/DLC they are successful because they made by far the best game of the year (barring any late entries). I strongly suspect The Witcher 3 would of been just as successful had they been terrible in those departments.

i think its a bit of both. their consumer friendly attitudes helped with publicity a lot (i literally saw their name everywhere for a few days) and them making awesome game means that all of those people didnt get disappointing and are more willing to support consumer friendly attitudes in the future. Which, frankly, means buying more from CD Project Red.

The only companies I can name off the top of my head that don't have this vulnerability are Steam and LEGO.

Funnily enough, they're stock's actually dropped slightly today. Not saying it's as a result of the news or because the studio's been fairly quiet, but it's an interesting coincidence. [/quote]
actually it has been falling for couple weeks now and is coming down from the rise it had before. Given that its traded in Warsaws stock exchange the fluctation difference is perfectly normal there.