It's fair to say it's been a bit of a rough week for Cyberpunk 2077.
Following the announcement of the game's delay to December 10th back on Tuesday, developer CD Projekt Red took part in an eventful call to investors, which included president and joint-CEO Adam Kiciński downplaying reports of crunch at the studio, stating the crunch was "not that bad, and never was."
"Regarding crunch; actually it's not that bad - and never was. 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."
As you might expect, this drew quite a bit of backlash, with Kiciński later apologising to staff for his comments in an internal email acquired by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier.
"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 and the call itself is lifting, that I'm fulling realizing the extent of my words."
"I have nothing to say in my defense. What I said was not even unfortunate, it was utterly bad. For that, please accept my most sincere and honest apologies."
Kiciński was also asked during the call about whether he feels comfortable in Cyberpunk 2077's new December release date, stating that he's "maybe not comfortable, but confident".
What do you make of this story? Give us your thoughts down in the comments.
[source twitter.com, via pcgamer.com]
Comments 9
I get the hype people have for this game but I’ve just not felt it and all the gameplay I’ve seen hasn’t helped, some of it looks downright clunky.
I’ll pick it up next year when it’s had its next gen patch and other patches. It’s been a ***** couple of months for CDPR that’s for sure.
@Kefka2589 I love the setting I’ve got to be honest, probably find it more interesting than The Witcher’s world but everything I’ve seen of gameplay has hardly impressed me. The world and characters look stunning, everything else I’m not so sure.
@deadcow Does it strike you as poor management that the team did not learn they had another 3 weeks of crunch time until the last minute (and via a public announcement)?
Crunch time is common in many industries. But moving the goalposts on employees when they look forward to "completion" seems likely to promkte burnout. That said, maybe game developers don't expect the post-launch polish phase to be any more relaxed than pre-launch optimization.
These guys are getting paid thousands maybe millions to make video games for a living.. Cry me a river..
Making games is something lots of people want to do, so the market is flooded with interns and passionate people willing to work for little pay. The supply of workers is greater than the demand.
Maybe that will change slightly if leaps in processing power slow down and the industry needs more veteran programmers who know how to optimize their code.
@Deadcow I agree that most of this comes from outside. I have been working in IT for 14 years and there have been times when I have worked 12-16 hour days 7 days a week for 3 weeks straight. Worse when I got into management. Also I live in Pittsburgh which is a steel town, my friends and family in the mill work 12 hour shifts 7 days a week for 6 months at a time sometimes, and that is in front of a giant furnace. As long as these folks are compensated for their time it is their choice to do the work.
@Deadcow Well said. My overtime money let us afford for my wife stay home with our daughter until she went to pre-k. We wouldn’t have made it without it.
@Luigi_Skywalker Good for you; now imagine you lived in a society and industry that didn't force one parent to be utterly consumed by their job in order for the other parent to be able to afford to raise their child.
@Fath It's nice to dream.
Tap here to load 9 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...