CD Projekt RED has gone on record to refute rumors that they are considering a sale to Electronic Arts.
In a brief statement, co-founder Marcin Iwinski said this on behalf of the company:
We usually don't comment on rumours but this one has become quite viral and we think it deserves to be put to bed. 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.
A rumor sprung up a few days ago that an alleged employee company revealed that a potential takeover by EA was underway. Said source provided a payslip as proof of their identity, so this is the payslip that Marcin is referring to.
The rumor caught fire, but not necessarily because the developer was in trouble. Both the studio still making games, and its spinoff business, DRM-free game distribution platform GOGcom, are very profitable and each expanding. As a sign of how GOGcom stands, sales of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt hit one million on the platform, out of the six million it sold in six weeks’ time.
While that wasn’t a possibility, what was feasible is the notion that CD Projekt RED was looking to expand, and needed to do so to a degree that it would not have been able to on its own. I don’t know what EA would have had planned for GOGcom then, but it would not have been impossible for them to acquire it as well, or just let GOGcom spin off into its own.
Feasible or not, CD Projekt RED has put its foot down to dispel the rumors completely.
