Bloomberg reports that CD PROJEKT RED is mandating six-day work weeks
leading up to the
promised November 19th
release of
Cyberpunk 2077. The developer previously
repeatedly promised they
would not put their staff through the dreaded crunch leading up to the launch of
the eagerly anticipated RPG. But there was a
hint earlier this year
that they were backtracking on this commitment. Now this seems to be
definitively the case. Bloomberg has the following internal email from studio head Adam
Badowski they say was shared with them by a CDPR employee who asked not to be
named:
“Starting today, the entire (development) studio is in overdrive,”
Badowski wrote, elaborating that this meant “your typical amount of work and one
day of the weekend.” The extra work would be paid, as required by Polish labor
laws. Many other video game studios don’t pay for overtime.
“I take it upon myself to receive the full backlash for the decision,” he wrote.
“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.”