CD Projekt Red Has Reportedly Made Crunch Mandatory on Cyberpunk 2077
With their game’s release just a couple of months away, reporting by Bloomberg has seemingly exposed that CD Projekt Red has instigated mandatory crunch for developers working on Cyberpunk 2077. Notably, this enforcement of crunch directly contradicts past promises made by the studio’s management.
Reports of Mandatory Crunch at CD Projekt Red
The new report cites an internal email from CD Projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski, which was shared anonymously with Bloomberg. In the email, Badowski announces mandatory six-day weeks for development staff. Labour laws in Poland, where CD Projekt Red is based, will ensure that staff are paid for the overtime. However, the new policy goes against promises made by both Badowski and co-founder Marcin Iwiński.
In May of 2019, Iwiński stated that CD Projekt Red would have a “non-obligatory” policy when it comes to crunch; while staff might be asked to work weekends or nights, they wouldn’t be forced to do so. Clearly, this new directive breaches that policy. Those statements and others were made to assuage concerns about a repeat of what happened in 2017. Back then, CD Projekt Red had received a series of negative reviews on Glassdoor, mostly citing excessive crunch during the development of The Witcher 3.
In the email shared with Bloomberg, Badowski acknowledges that enforcing six-day working weeks breaks their past promises. “I take it upon myself to receive the full backlash for the decision,” he writes; “I know this is in direct opposition to what we’ve said about crunch. It’s also in direct opposition to what I personally grew to believe a while back; that crunch should never be the answer. But we’ve extended all other possible means of navigating the situation.”
Unfortunately, this instance of mandatory crunch may not be a one-off. Anonymous sources who spoke to Bloomberg about crunch at the studio reportedly claim that some staff have had to work weekends or nights for more than a year already. (Despite two major delays to the game’s release date, of course, which have afforded CD Projekt Red around seven extra months of development time.)