Earlier this week, Cyberpunk 2077 got another delay, pushing it from November 19 to December 10. This is just an extension of the already mandatory six weeks’ worth of crunch announced in September. CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kiciński made some comments about crunch that received a backlash in a call with investors, and now he issued an apology.
“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.”
His apology was sent as an internal e-mail. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier caught that apology and posted a side by side comparison of the two statements.
“From the bottom of my heart, I would like to apologize to everyone for what I said during Tuesday’s investor conference call,” he wrote. “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 realising the true extent of my words.”
Here's CD Projekt Red co-CEO Adam Kiciński talking to investors about crunch yesterday (left) and him apologizing to his employees for those comments today in an email obtained by Bloomberg News (right). Quite a turnaround pic.twitter.com/YaYNtPDphY
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 29, 2020
Kiciński adds that employees can talk to him directly in person or message him on Slack.
Schreier continues on Twitter to deliver further details on the situation at the Polish developer. One employee who spoke to him said that they clocked in a 100 hour week. Meanwhile, a former employee went by to see their old colleagues only to find that they looked “physically ill.”
Look, a CDPR dev told me recently that they'd just clocked a 100-hour week. Another (former) dev just told me they saw some of their friends there and they looked "physically ill." So kindly gtfo with the "but but but I work long hours too" responses
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 27, 2020
The latest delay for the upcoming FPS RPG was not only news for media outlets and fans anticipating the game. Reportedly, the developers learned that they would have to further push the release date into the year simultaneously as the Twitter announcement through an internal e-mail. The reason behind missing the November date is related to current-gen platforms, which have more issues than PC or next-gen consoles.
The excessive hours to clock in for the devs will go far beyond the extended launch day for Cyberpunk 2077. Post-launch bug fixes and DLC will not lead to a slowdown in the development process.
What do you think of the crunch comments and follow-up apology from CD Projekt Red’s CEO? Let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments.
