Cyberpunk 2077 and its multiple delays have caused some major issues for CD Projekt RED. Not only are the gamers fed up with the delays, so much so that they are sending death threats to developers but the workers at the studio have been clocking 100-hour weeks.
The “crunch” at the studio has been in the news for a few weeks now with many developers claiming to have worked impossible hours due to the game’s crazy development pipeline. According to some reports, most of the development team at CD Projekt Red only found out about the game’s recent delay to 4 December 2020 on the same day the rest of the world got the news. If anything, the working conditions at the studio sound horrific.
In a recent call to investors following the Cyberpunk 2077 delay, CD Projekt Red co-CEO Adam Kiciński said crunch at the studio is “not that bad – and never was.” He said;
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#33E3FF” class=”” size=”21″]”Of course it’s a story that has been picked up by the media, and some people have been crunching heavily, but a large part of the team is not crunching at all since they have finished their work. It’s mostly about Q&A and engineers, programmers—but it’s not that heavy. Of course, it will be extended a bit, but we have feedback from the team, they’re happy about the extra three weeks, so we don’t see any threats regarding crunch.”[/perfectpullquote]
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In the same meeting, Adam claims that the cause for the Cyberpunk 2077 is due to the PS4 and Xbox One. Apparantly, the game is running well on next-gen consoles and PC but the older hardware is not doing so great.
Following the investors call, Adam’s comments minimizing the impact of the crunch caused backlash not only at the studio but also online. He immediately did damage control and sent an email to staff apologizing. The email stated;
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#5BFF33″ class=”” size=”21″]”I had not wanted to comment on crunch, yet I still did, and I did it in a demeaning and harmful way. Truth be told, it’s only now, when the stress connected with the delay decision an the call itself is lifting, that I’m fulling realizing the extent of my words. I have nothing to say in my defence. What I said was not even unfortunate, it was utterly bad. For that, please accept my most sincere and honest apologies.”[/perfectpullquote]
He then invited employees to speak with him directly online and in-person to chat about any concerns they may have. However, the damage has been done. While Cyberpunk 2077 is still a few weeks away, I have a feeling we are going to hear about the issues in-house for years to come.
