CD Projekt RED gets EU taxpayers' money

[archmage2]

CD Projekt RED gets EU taxpayers' money

It's disgusting that CDPR is involved in politics.

Source: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/sites/eac...ev-vg-2015.pdf

 

[Hart95]

It's disgusting that CDPR is involved in politics.

Source: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/sites/eac...ev-vg-2015.pdf

I fail to see how this is "getting involved in politics". They asked for a grant from the government for what roughly amounts to $150,000 with 7% co-funding - I'm not sure what co-funding means. They had run short on money when developing their earlier releases, so I can see why they'd do this. I didn't see anywhere on that document that it said it was tax money being given to them.

 

[Markush100]

What would you do with the money? CDPR is doing an amazing job promoting polish art and culture to the world. I am in fact happy to know that the polish government supports video games as an artform.

 

[Domhnallaich]

To us CDPR makes amazing, entertaining games. But they are also an employer, a growing one at that. People's jobs and the Polish economy rely on the success of their companies. CDPR is important in this regard.
If this helped CDPR in this regard, then what's the problem? And one last thing, receiving funding isn't 'playing politics'.

 

[Potestaquisitor]

I don't see the point of the op. They applied for a grant that will help them produce an exception new game and thus (because they are absolutely marvelous at what the do) will generate revenue for their country, employing several hundred* people (they thought they could get cyberpunk done with a team of 200* people, but as it stands there are close to 500 people on the project atm and could increase further) I don't see any politic here lol.

For anyone interested there is a video on YouTube that details the development of Witcher 3 and cyberpunk, its about an hour long and has a lot of interesting facts and some figures with regards to their development process and various interviews done by sites with the producers and such. It does talk more about the development of cyberpunk more, but also details the applications they made for grants to support the project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxSkPao-uWk

 

[sv3672]

It is not like CDP actually needed this money, $150000 is a minor sum when they make hundreds of millions on TW3 alone, and have recently been estimated to have a market value exceeding $1.6 billion. So, in the end it does not make much difference either way, even if I do not really like the idea of governments getting involved in the production of "art" (putting aside the question of how much the games qualify as such) when not necessary.

 

[Domhnallaich]

It is not like CDP actually needed this money, $150000 is a minor sum when they make hundreds of millions on TW3 alone, and have recently been estimated to have a market value exceeding $1.6 billion. So, in the end it does not make much difference either way, even if I do not really like the idea of governments getting involved in the production of "art" (putting aside the question of how much the games qualify as such) when not necessary.

How do you know? Financially speaking, CDPR were not a massive company at this point, probably still are not in the way you are thinking. They specialised in localising games for the Polish market, selling boxed copies, they were not game devs! They wanted to make a game and made TW1 with around 50 people. They didn't know how to make games, they learned as they went along. When it came to TW2, they had to expand and use the skills they learned, to make their own engine and the game. They almost went bust doing it! I think this is why they branched to consoles because, they needed a wider player base or they would have went under.

TW3 is a massive undertaking compared to TW2 so, they likely sailed very close to the wind as far as financially staying afloat goes. To assume they did not need the money is very ignorant.

Edit: You also need to consider that when developing a game, a lot of the costs are upfront before the game begins to sell. CDPR don't make any back until people start buying the game.

 

[sv3672]

As far as I can see, the application is from 2015, and it is for the Blood and Wine expansion, not the main game. CD Projekt were not a small company by that time, they had ~250 people working on TW3 by the end of the development cycle, and more already on the pre-production of Cyberpunk 2077. If they were in any serious financial trouble, they would not have been able to delay the release of the game twice. And they also had GOG as a major source of revenue. Anyway, I do not care particularly much, it is only a small percentage of the development and marketing costs, I just do not think it was really needed, and am also somewhat skeptical regarding the "games as art" thing when in my opinion even CDPR themselves do not really treat their own work as such.

 

[Hayashi.226]

I don't see how successfully applying for a grant constitutes getting "involved in politics". Governments disburse grants to try to encourage or incentivize the private sector to move in a certain direction that it feels is necessary or desirable. For example, a country wishing to jump start or enhance its R&D sector may set aside funding in the form of grants that private players may apply to. There would likely be qualifying criteria and having one's application accepted is no guarantee of succeeding in getting the grant, since all applications would likely be evaluated and usually there are more applications than funding available.

In CDPR's case, they applied to Creative Europe which is the European Commission's framework programme for support to the culture and audiovisual sectors. I interpret the 7% co-funding as the percentage of overall estimated project cost that the grant helps to meet, which means that CDPR estimated that B&W would cost about €2.14m to create and perhaps bring to market.

It is not unusual for businesses and organisations to take advantage of Government grants to help cover costs of whatever. It is not entirely free money, there are normally terms and conditions on how the grant may be used and recipients will normally have to account for how they utilised the grant. And profitability is not the only item that businesses keep their eye on; cash flow is also a critical financial aspect that any organisation would monitor.

 

[metalmaniac21]

More money to CDPR - less funds to gender studies. I don't see a bad thing in this.

 

[sv3672]

It is not entirely free money, there are normally terms and conditions on how the grant may be used and recipients will normally have to account for how they utilised the grant.

Hopefully those terms and conditions do not dictate (directly or indirectly) anything about the content. It is better to stay independent as much as possible.

 

[WolfsbaneDK]

You must be an America, no? Why are you so afraid of tax-money going to something else than yourself?

Here in Europe, we help each other. I think it's FANTASTIC that we, as a unity, can provide grants to companies in need.
I was on holiday in Poland two years ago. They are strill struggling, but by helping companies to be succesfull, that will affect work places and the economy in that country.

So happy to live in a part of the World were we are not greedy, but help those in need. This was a grant to help creative and cultural projects. What a great thing!

Sincerely, a democratic socialist from Denmark

 

[PeasantHenry]

You must be an America, no? Why are you so afraid of tax-money going to something else than yourself?

Here in Europe, we help each other. I think it's FANTASTIC that we, as a unity, can provide grants to companies in need.
I was on holiday in Poland two years ago. They are strill struggling, but by helping companies to be succesfull, that will affect work places and the economy in that country.

So happy to live in a part of the World were we are not greedy, but help those in need. This was a grant to help creative and cultural projects. What a great thing!

Sincerely, a democratic socialist from Denmark

Oh my... Time to drop out from the fool's paradise, Sir. (Or Madam)

- Why would you think that only Americans are greedy? People just happend to be greedy, and europe is no exception in that regard.
- There is no magical cow who just happends to poop money, right?
- Do you know that the whole world is in debt? Ever wondered why and how?

Anyway, have fun with your sweet-sixteen party.

 

[Sunsibar]

It seems that this thread starts to wander towards general economy discussion, and it's also getting a nasty tone while doing so.

Topic closed.