[Update 9:50am PT] In a response on Twitter to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier's reporting on Cyberpunk 2077 studio CD Projekt RED requiring crunch, studio head Aam Badowski called the call for crunch "on of the hardested decisions [he's] had to make."
https://t.co/Ie5W0O7iiv pic.twitter.com/IJBZ3IIT6m
— Adam Badowski (@AdamBadowski) September 30, 2020
In the response, he also reiterated that his team is "well compensated," and also detailed that his team will split 10% of the annual profit CDPR makes among the team itself as well.
[Original story below]
According to Bloomberg reporting by Jason Schreier, it sounds like an internal email from Cyberpunk 2077’s CD Projekt RED on Monday informed employees that 6-day work weeks would be required until the game’s November 19 launch.
According to Schreier, the email was from Studio Head Adam Badaowski. While he was happy with the current state of the game, he noted that this next period of time was to bug fix,
“Starting today, the entire (development) studio is in overdrive your typical amount of work and one day of the weekend.”
Schreier notes here that as per Polish labor laws, this extra time would be paid. Badowski continued in the email, accepting full backlack from this news,
“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.”
An article last year from Schreier when he was still at Kotaku had CD Projekt RED co-founder Marcin Iwi?ski tell Schreier,
“We’re known—let me be humble for a moment here—we are known for treating gamers with respect. This is what we’ve been working hard toward. And I actually would [like] for us to also be known for treating developers with respect.”
He continued that while there would be moments where people would need to work extra hard they,
“…want to be more humane and treat people with respect. If they [employees] need to take time off, they can take time off. Nobody will be frowned upon if this will be requested.”
