Namco Bandai Wins Rights To Distribute The Witcher 2 Xbox 360 In Europe

Namco Bandai has won a dispute with The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings developer CD Projekt over the European publishing rights for the Xbox 360 version of the critically acclaimed title. Earlier this year, the company filed a lawsuit against CD Projekt's parent company Optimus SA, noting that a European distribution deal with THQ for the Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2 went against the contract Namco Bandai had with CD Projekt. It also argued that CD Projekt had released the PC version of the game without digital rights management, which went against the contract. According to Polish newspaper Parquet, a court in Lyon has now ruled in favor of Namco Bandai, and ordered Projekt Red to hand the European distribution rights back to the company. This ruling does not affect the North American distribution rights for the game, hence Warner Bros. Publishing will still bring the game to North America early next year. Marcin Iwinski, a board member at CD Projekt Red, said of the decision, "We are not satisfied with the verdict... the most important thing for us, however, is ending the dispute." He continued, "Now we can focus on refining the game, which is in the final phase of testing." The console version of The Witcher 2 was delayed in August as a result of the legal battle.