Larry Fink Comes for Geralt of Rivea
The Witcher is dead It’s all over but for the crying.
I knew it the moment that CD Projekt Red CFO, Piotr Nielubowicz used the word “stakeholder.” In the past, this term meant nothing more than another common word that described the owners or stockholders (which is another way of saying owner) of businesses and corporations. However the unholy trinity of Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street have given “Stakeholder” a new meaning.
Stakeholders are now employees that terrorize their companies into complete obedience to The Message. They recently conducted their first relevance survey of their employees and issued a sustainability report.
In a six-minute video, Piotr Nielubowicz explains how the commissars have returned to Poland with a vengeance. They are proudly active in ESG. They are promising to confront socially important topics in their games. Don’t watch if you have a blood pressure problem.
Every horrible code word I’ve come to expect from Disney is now being repeated by Projekt Red’s CFO, who is also a board member.
You are probably wondering, what happened to the independent Polish developer who famously resisted buyout attempts by Microsoft and Embracer? Cyber Punk 2077 is what happened. It famously had a major stumble out of the gate. It did recover and credit has to be given to the company for bothering as much as they did with a game that had a broken launch. They did a lot more than just patch it into playability and good for them for doing so.
They went on to make Phantom Liberty which is widely regarded as a great DLC (I haven’t played it). It had all kinds of great reviews and positive press. Unfortunately, one word that hasn’t been connected with Phantom Liberty is, “profitable.”
They went from one AAA release that broke its leg getting out of the gate to a DLC with MGM production values but a Disney box office performance.
Smelling blood in the water the Unholy Trinity circled in for the kill.
The Unreal engine remake of the first Witcher game is being made by Fool’s Theory which has a lot of Projekt Red veterans in it. Normally, I’d be interested as the first one had some notable deficiencies even when it was new. Problem; the studio is already talking about removing parts that are “outdated.”
I am quite willing to be pleasantly surprised by Witcher 4 and the Unreal remake. I just don’t think I will be. Truthfully a game studio going over to the Darkside doesn’t really bother me, I mostly play indies now.
What does bother me is that CD Projekt Red owns GOG.com.
To end on a somewhat positive note Hasbro is actively exploring a buyout of Dungeons and Dragons by Tencent; a company is and likely to remain immune to the seductive blandishments of Larry Fink
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