The Witcher III: Wild Hunt continues to be revered for the incredible fantasy RPG experience that it is. With memorable characters, a stunning world to explore, and a thrilling narrative – it’s not surprising that it’s beloved by so many. Another feature of the game that many enjoy is its incredible soundtrack, though one song in particular is landing the studio in hot water.
Elvis Stanic, a Croatian composer, has taken legal issue with CD Projekt RED over his song Naranca. Stanic alleges that the studio stole his track and used it for what CD Projekt RED called Widow-Maker. The Widow-Maker song in question was composed by Mikolaj Stroinski for the wildly popular game, alongside Marcin Przybylowicz.
Widow-Maker was based on the 2012 soundtrack Songs from the Southern Slavs, an album performed by the band Percival. Stanic both wrote the song Naranca for a band called Putokazi. It was even registered with the Croatian body ZAMP in addition to the International Authors’ Center.
Though CD Projekt RED did remove the song from both the official game soundtrack and from streaming sites, the composer has stated that he received no compensation for his stolen song that was “unlawfully” sold and is now asking for recompense. He told the site Bug, “I recently reported and will continue to report to Youtube all the videos containing my song Orange if it is stated that it is a traditional Croatian song or is listed under the name Widow-maker and incorrectly signed by the names Mikolai Stroinski, Marcin Przybyłowicz since this leads to gross distortion exclusively of my copyright.
“As a composer, I’m delighted to have my song found in such a popular game and have so many fans and dresses, but she was stolen, her name was unauthorized, and I was subjected to enormous damage as an exclusive author.”
At this time, CD Projekt RED has yet to publicly address the claims. To compare the two songs for yourself, you can listen to both tracks below:
H/T Resetera
