During the last few hours, thanks to an investigation by a journalist from the well-known American newspaper Bloomberg, the news of an alleged crunch imposed on the Cyberpunk 2077 development team by the executives of CD Project Red, who have increased the work shifts of all their employees to be able to complete the game by the release date of the title, set for next November 19, despite the repeated postponements that the title has undergone over the last few months. Obviously this news has caused quite a stir, especially after the Polish software house has always reiterated that among their company policies it was absolutely impossible to subject one's employees to any kind of crunch, treating it almost as a source of pride for the studio compared to all the others.
Therefore, the Studio Manager of the Polish company took care of these heavy accusations Adam Badowski, who in a statement through his official Twitter profile tried to justify this risky move by CD Projekt Red. According to him, these extra hours of work that the team will be subjected to in the last 6 weeks that separate them from the release of the game will be the "final sprint“, Especially since the game has recently been sent for certification.
These last six weeks represent the final sprint of a project on which we have spent a good part of our lives. Most of the team understand this well, especially taking into account that we have just sent the game for certification and every day it brings us closer and closer to a game we want to be proud of. This was one of the hardest choices I've ever had to make, but I can assure you that every employee will be well rewarded for every hour of overtime.
Badowski then confirms that in the last few weeks that separate us from the release of Cyberpunk 2077, the team has actually undergone a crunch campaign by the development company, which apparently he has not been able to keep his promises made to its developers in recent months, also subjecting them to long work shifts that have reached six working days a week.
https://t.co/Ie5W0O7iiv pic.twitter.com/IJBZ3IIT6m
- Adam Badowski (@AdamBadowski) September 30, 2020