"We are not talking with anyone regarding selling CD Projekt Red or GOG. Period."
Company Board wants rumours "put to bed".
CD Projekt Red has issued a formal statement to Eurogamer this morning in response to an unfounded rumour that spread yesterday.
"We usually don't comment on rumours but this one has become quite viral and we think it deserves to be put to bed," said co-founder Marcin Iwinski on behalf of the Board. "We are not talking with anyone regarding selling CD Projekt Red or GOG.com. Period. And the payslip is a fake - it was not issued by our company."
The rumour came from a site called DSOGaming, which heard from a supposed employee of CD Projekt Red that the company was in talks with major publisher Electronic Arts about "a potential takeover". A payslip was provided to the website, and displayed in the article, as proof of identity.
CD Projekt Red informally addressed the rumour yesterday on Twitter, community manager Marcin Momot tweeting: "Just bumped into Marcin Iwiński - it was new to him. I guess the 'informer' has better insight than the CD Projekt Red founder."
A sale of any kind goes completely against the staunchly independent nature of the acclaimed Witcher studio, which challenges the big corporation values of companies like EA at every turn. CD Projekt Red is also financially flying high, having sold 6m Witcher 3 copies in six weeks. And as an effectively self-published game, most profits go back to it.
But what sums it up best is a quote by Marcin Iwinski on the company's future, given in May in a much larger piece I wrote.
"What we have as the slogan of our studio is that 'we are rebels'," he said. "Rebels, underdogs - I think it's a state of mind. The moment we start becoming conservative [and] stop taking creative risks and business risks, and stop being true to what we're doing, that's when we should worry. And I am not worried. Our values and our care for what we are doing and - hopefully what gamers would agree with - care for gamers is what drives this company forward. Whether we are big or small, we have a multiplatform open-world game or just a PC release, the game and our deeds are what counts, not the fact that we are perceived by some as the big guys.
"It's my personal horror to become a faceless behemoth of game development or publishing or whatnot," he added. "As long as I am here I will be fighting for this not to happen."
The Witcher 3 will welcome first expansion Hearts of Stone on 13th October, which lasts around 10 hours. Then in the first quarter of next year there'll be an even bigger expansion in Blood & Wine, which should last around 20 hours.
In addition, CD Projekt Red will ramp up production on major new title Cyberpunk 2077, which has been in development in the background at the studio for a few years.
