CD Projekt Red is reportedly requiring employees to crunch ahead of the release of Cyberpunk 2077 in November. This comes after a developer promised last year there would be no mandatory crunch. The report was detailed in an article from Bloomberg titled Cyberpunk 2077 Publisher Orders 6-Day Weeks Ahead of Game Debut. The information was gathered from an email sent out by CD Projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski as well as an employee within the company.
The email reads,
Starting today, the entire (development) studio [of Cyberpunk 2077] is in overdrive. I take it upon myself to receive the full backlash for the decision. 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 term crunch is used to describe a time when employees are asked to work extra hours and days to finish a project on time. In many cases, it means staying late well past the nine to five timeclock and in extreme cases, it could mean working from home and clocking in on weekends or working all day long. It appears this specific crunch time may be to fix the”many lingering bugs and glitches” within Cyberpunk 2077. However, the game had already been sent off to be certified by both Sony and Microsoft before this time. Bloomberg also reported that CD Projekt Red employees will be getting paid for the overtime put in.
The CD Projekt Red employee said that many of the staff had been working nights and weekends for more than a year already. In an interview with Kotaku last year, co-chief executive officer Marcin Iwinski said CD Projekt Red employees would not be working overtime or six-day weeks to complete the Cyberpunk 2077. This would be unlike what happened during the development of The Witcher 3.
CD Projekt Red has yet to comment.
