With the November release date for Cyberpunk 2077 coming closer, a new report from Bloomberg revealed that CD Projekt Red is now forcing mandatory six-day workweeks. The overtime work will be paid, as per Polish labour laws.
This mandatory overtime work, or “crunch” as it’s called in the video game development industry, comes in spite of early promises that the Polish developers will not be doing so for Cyberpunk. In May 2019, CD Projekt Red committed to having a “non-obligatory crunch policy”.
“I take it upon myself to receive the full backlash for the decision,” CD Projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski in an email to staff, disclosed by a CD Projekt Red employee to Bloomberg.
“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.”
The email also revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 is now being certified for release on PS4 and Xbox One, which means it’s now the tail-end of the development where time is spent on bug fixes and polish.
CD Projekt Red is one of the game developers with a lot of goodwill going on them. They have been practising policies that appeal to the players including free next-gen upgrades, free DLCs, and paid expansions worthy of it its price. It’s a shame that they can’t hold to that standard for its own employees.
Cyberpunk 2077 was first revealed to be released in April this year, but has since been delayed twice to September and then to November 19.
Source: Bloomberg