Last updated on December 10, 2020
Hello! Weāre CD PROJEKT RED and we make video games like The Witcher, GWENT: The Witcher Card Game, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales and Cyberpunk 2077. We really appreciate all the work that our community puts into showing their love for our games and, to support you in this, weāve put together these guidelines. They also include some legal stuff (weāre sorry about that, but we hope you will understand it is intended to protect our games, you and us). If you have any questions, you can reach us at legal@cdprojektred.com.
Weāre happy for you to make nearly any kind of fan content within reason and if it follows these guidelines ā for example:
making gameplay videos or streams on sites like YouTube and Twitch,
drawing some amazing fanart involving our characters and posting it on social media - we know our community is full of talented van Roghs!
creating cosplay props and cosplaying characters from our games,
taking screenshots of our games and sharing them online, or turning them into wallpaper, or a poster for your bedroom wall,
creating a community website, fan page or news group for our games,
creating software that works alongside our games, like overlay software,
. . . And weāre sure youāll come up with even more creative ideas!
Like we said earlier, weād love you to unleash your creativity and make amazing things inspired by our games. That said, we want to keep our games safe and weād rather not see copies, mutations or other kinds of clones flying around. Weāre sure you would not like to see that either, would you? So, our legal team asked us to put in place some āGolden Rulesā which apply to all fan content ā here they are:
No commercial usage. Weād love for your fan content to be created by fans, for fans. Therefore, you cannot do anything with our games for any commercial purpose, unless explicitly permitted otherwise below (e.g. see section 3 about videos and streams). Weāre happy for you to accept reasonable donations in connection with your fan content, but youāre not allowed to make people pay for it or have it behind any sort of paywall (e.g. donāt make content only available to paid subscribers).
Make it clearly āunofficialā. Please make sure your fan content clearly displays the following (or similar) wording in a sensible and obvious location: āThis is an unofficial fan work and is not approved/endorsed by CD PROJEKT REDā. Please donāt do or say anything which could make anyone think we endorse or support you. Of course, if we feel your fan content is so awesome that we want to endorse or approve your work then weāll let you know! Remember - the fan content you make is your responsibility.
Donāt put it in other games/products. Your fan content should stand on its own ā it should not be incorporated into a third-party game or product (except as we explain below).
Donāt hurt us or others. Please be respectful to other players, fans and our games! Donāt create, do or say anything regarding our games that is racist, xenophobic, sexist, defamatory, illegal or offensive, or anything that could harm CD PROJEKT RED, its games, users or staff. Also, please donāt infringe the rights of other people (e.g. creators of other games, movies, books, TV shows etc.). This is also relevant for any real-life brands and people included in our games ā youāre only allowed to use those brands or images of those people if they allow you to do so and provided you donāt harm them in any way! Basically, when making fan content, make sure youāve got permission from all the people concerned (which might be people other than us).
Follow the legal rules. These guidelines are our informal guidance to you, but the full legal rules are our CD PROJEKT RED User Agreement and End User License Agreements (EULAs) for each game (e.g. The Witcher, GWENT and Cyberpunk 2077).Ā If thereās any conflict between these guidelines and those documents, then those documents win.
Yes! In addition to the Golden Rules above, we have some specific rules for certain types of fan content:
Videos and streams.
We think itās awesome that our community makes such fantastic playthroughs, walkthroughs, Letās Play videos, achievement guides and video reviews! We encourage everyone to create videos using content from our games, as well as livestream our games to the public. Please feel free to publish your fan content on YouTube, Twitch and other video sharing websites.
Weāre cool with you monetising your videos and streams via the YouTube and Twitch partner programs (plus other similar video/stream sharing site programs), but as mentioned above, these should never be behind a paywall.
Important: please donāt use content from our games in videos and streams which arenāt actually related in any way to our games (e.g. donāt use our cinematics or gameplay videos in the background of things like music videos). If you want to use our games for something unrelated, ask us in advance via legal@cdprojektred.com.
Music
For some of our games we may not own all the music outright (e.g. some of the radio music in Cyberpunk 2077). When we donāt own the music, you may need permission from other third parties before using that music in your fan content. You might even need permission from more than one person or company (e.g. the composer and the music label) - please see the ācreditsā section of our games to see relevant owners. Music licensing is complicated, so please be careful when using music from our games.
For videos and streams of Cyberpunk 2077 specifically weāve introduced a tool that allows creators to turn off music we donāt own and which is not āstreamableā ā we recommend you have a read of our statement on the topic here.
For music that we do own, please donāt use it in ways that are unrelated to our games (e.g. as a background music in a video about someone elseās product). Weāre happy for you to do your own covers of our music (e.g. your own versions of Priscillaās āThe Wolven Stormā from The Witcher 3 or āVā from Cyberpunk 2077) and you can monetise these as outlined in the videos and streams section above, but no other commercial use is allowed. Also, we donāt allow remixes in any circumstances ā sorry!
Mods. Weāre happy for you to make mods for our games (i.e. software that modifies or works with our games ā e.g. changing the UI or adding new mechanics) so long as it doesnāt breach the relevant gameās EULA (e.g. no cheating ā this is especially important for GWENT!). If you want to make a mod for another game or service using our content, or make the mod a standalone product, ask us in advance via legal@cdprojektred.com (we just donāt want the next Soulkiller virus).
Websites. As we mentioned, we think itās great that you want to run community websites and other fan pages ā please just make sure that any domains do not include any of our game or company names, trade marks or anything similar (e.g. Cyberpunk2078.com would not be cool).
Games and Mobile Apps. Please do not make a video game or any mobile app that uses, is related to, or is based on our games.
You own the new, original fan content you create. However, since your fan content is based on our content, we may want to show it off on our social media, make it available to other players in our games (e.g. in case of your mods) etc. In order for us to be able to use and transmit your fan content we need you to give us certain rights over it. So, we kindly ask that you give us from the moment of creation of your fan content a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable, royalty-free licence to use, modify, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, exploit, transmit, perform and communicate your fan content in connection with our games. From our side, rest assured that if your creation stands out we will do our best to reach out, have a chat and grant you appropriate recognition.
Just to be clear, the content from our games (e.g. characters, setting, gameplay and appearance) is and will be still owned by us.
Well, you really shouldnāt do it, but if you have questions then you can get in touch with legal@cdprojektred.com. Please keep in mind that our lawyers care deeply about our community and will do everything they can to eventually come back to you. Unfortunately, they are a busy bunch, so it might take them a while to dig out from under all those lawyery things and get back to you. However, remember that no response from their side doesnāt mean we agree to the stuff you proposed in your message.
We might need to update these guidelines from time to time as people make cool new fan content with our games. When we do, weāll post an update on www.cdprojektred.com. Once we change these guidelines, the updated version will become legally binding 30 days after we post it online. During that period, you're welcome to contact us atĀ legal@cdprojektred.comĀ if you have specific questions about the changes.
If something isnāt clear to you in these guidelines, please ask us! If thereās anything you think we could add to make it clearer, let us know (but no promises)! All rights and other matters not related to fan content are reserved to us, so be careful. Again, you can contact us at legal@cdprojektred.com.