A year ago, with a surprise move, the management of CD Projekt Red declared to the press that they did not want to resort in any way, in the final development of Cyberpunk 2077, to excessively pressing working conditions (so-called crunch - ed). However, with just over a month and a half from the date of publication, good intentions already seem to have dissolved like snow in the sun. The final debugging phase of the title seems in fact longer than expected, and the Polish software house certainly cannot afford further delays.
Last year, the bosses of CD Projekt Red approached me for an interview. They wanted to announce that for Cyberpunk 2077, they would be avoiding mandatory crunch.
This week, they sent out an email to staff announcing studio-wide mandatory crunch. News: https://t.co/s4OI5rUiQq
- Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 29, 2020
In a report by Jason Schreier (Bloomberg), it appears that developer CD Projekt RED would have begun imposing an extended 6-day workweek in the latest development phase of Cyberpunk 2077, which we recall will launch on PS4, Xbox One, PC a November and for next-gen (and Stadia) at a later date. An anonymous employee posted a company email confirming the situation.
In the email, CD Projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski explains that "the whole studio is overworked" and employees are expected to be willing to give up a day off on the weekend, obviously with regular overtime. paid. Badowski continues: "I know this is in direct opposition to what we have said about the job crunch, but we have already extended all other possible means of dealing with the situation."
Crunch and overwork are a recurring problem in the video game industry and CD Projekt Red has already been in the eye of the storm, not just for Cyberpunk. Certainly the implications of the global pandemic have presented studies with unprecedented organizational challenges, and this implies the need for engage employees even more at the pre-launch final phase. But it is also true that, in all likelihood, we witness much heavier stories of ordinary exploitation every day.
The attention threshold is rightly high and in our opinion it must remain high. For no reason would it be justifiable that, in order to build a pure entertainment product, someone has worsened the quality of life of workers and their families.
► Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG-Adventure game developed by CD Projekt RED and published by Bandai Namco for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 10/12/2020
Cyberpunk 2077 is a game to own at all costs: we decided to evaluate it with a 95%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Cyberpunk 2077 review
