Yesterday, we brought you the rumour, courtesy of Dark Side of Gaming, that Electronic Arts was in talks with CD Projekt RED over a potential commercial deal, maybe even taking the company over outright. The story was provided by an anonymous source who claimed to be an employee of CD Projekt RED, even offering proof of their position with a photo of a payslip.
Hours later, Marcin Momot, Community Lead and Website Co-ordinator for CD Projekt RED, debunked the rumour on his Twitter account. Despite this, the rumour has persisted for the last 24 hours, forcing the game developer to issue a formal statement, denying that it is in talks with EA, and claiming the alleged employee’s payslip “proof” was a fake.
“We usually don’t comment on rumours but this one has become quite viral and we think it deserves to be put to bed,” Marcin Iwinski, co-founder of CD Projekt RED, said 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.”
Marcin Iwinski has been very vocal in the past about his company’s ideology – “What we have as the slogan of our studio is that ‘we are rebels’,” Iwinski said back in May – and a deal with a large publisher such as EA would seemingly rob it of that identity. “Rebels, underdogs – I think it’s a state of mind,” Iwinski added at the time, “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.”
Nor are we, now.
Thank you Eurogamer for providing us with this information.
Another website that jumps on a story without checking the proof they were given.. they got the website traffic and attention they wanted.. shame..