Home Gaming CD Projekt RED addresses company culture, complaints of low morale

CD Projekt RED addresses company culture, complaints of low morale

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Cyberpunk2077

CD Projekt RED is, for good reason, one of the darling developers as far as consumers are concerned. They’re the sort who’re usually so forthcoming with information, that in the eyes of those who buy their games, they can do no wrong. However, the radio silence regarding Cyberpunk 2077, the departure of a number of team leads and some unflattering company reviews on employment review site Glassdoor have led to a bit of negativity. Enough so that CD Projekt RED has felt compelled to comment.

“We’d normally avoid commenting on company reviews on spaces like Glassdoor, but this time around – especially in light of the fact we haven’t communicated anything about Cyberpunk 2077 for a long time and saw some gamers getting worried about the project – we’d like to elaborate on a few things.”

The apparent lack of staff morale among those who’ve left and some who remain at the company apparently comes down to how the company has expanded in size, along with how uncompromising the company is in its vision, co-founder Marcin Iwinski and studio head Adam Badowski said in the statement.

“Every role-playing game we ever developed seemed impossible to achieve at the moment we set out to create it … [but] even if something feels impossible, it doesn’t mean it is. As it turns out, most often things are perfectly possible, they just require a lot of faith, commitment and spirit,” the statement said.

“This approach to making games is not for everyone. It often requires a conscious effort to ‘reinvent the wheel’ – even if you personally think it already works like a charm. But you know what? We believe reinventing that wheel every friggin’ time is what makes a better game. It’s what creates innovation and makes it possible for us to say we’ve worked really hard on something, and we think it’s worth your hard-earned-cash. If you make games with a ‘close enough is good enough’ attitude, you end up in a comfort zone. And you know where the magic happens.”

CDPRstatement

Unusually for CDPR, the statement doesn’t really address any of the concerns around the human cost of making games – and really just comes across as PR. There’s still an unfortunate glorification of crunch (perfectly captured in Jason Schreier’s Blood, Sweat and Pixels) within the industry and this statement really just solidifies that. But, it’s all in the name of giving us great games so we as consumers happily ignore it all.

“Cyberpunk 2077 is progressing as planned but we are taking our time – in this case the silence is the cost of making a great game.”

Last Updated: October 17, 2017

6 Comments

  1. Matthew Holliday

    October 17, 2017 at 09:58

    Well they ended up compromising a fair bit with witcher 3, when you compare the trailers to the release.
    In the end there are limitations.

    But even still, they have set our expectations pretty high, so they have to maintain that attitude if they dont wanna pull a Bioware.

    And also, PR/marketing BS, all comments from any dev are to be taken with a pinch of salt bae.

    Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    October 17, 2017 at 10:08

    Firstly I don’t ignore crunch, I think it’s a blight on the industry, it’s not actually good for anyone in the long run, & it takes advantage of the developers – particularly when it’s forced and uncompensated.

    I also remember people worrying when lead devs quit Witcher 3 a few months before it was released, and what we got was stellar. I’m perfectly happy for them to keep quiet until they have something they want to show. People love to act as if the sky is falling because of a few rumours & hearsay, and that’s before the conspiracy nut jobs get involved.

    Reply

    • BakedBagel

      October 17, 2017 at 17:45

      Less hype for hacks to report on?

      Bring and come with that radio silence

      Reply

  3. Original Heretic

    October 17, 2017 at 10:48

    This “crunch” that they speak of doesn’t only happen in the gaming industry, it happens in any entertainment job. There’s always so much pressure to deliver and it never feels like anything is going to be get done.
    And there’s always some git who wants to bemoan the fact that they have to work hard. Those are the ones who don’t last.
    If you go into a job like that, you have to be able to take the pressure. If you can’t, then leave. There are so many other people out there who will be willing to step up.

    Reply

  4. Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

    October 17, 2017 at 11:18

    They must have hired a new department of marketing graduates to come up with this joke.

    Reply

  5. Deceased

    October 17, 2017 at 21:09

    As a developer myself, with an unforgiving ( in regards to imperfection ), uncompromising boss that often has me working loooong hours, makes me stress EVERY SINGLE MONTH the closer we get to month-end ( financially speaking ) – I’d say this “crunch” ( or as we refer to it, “grind” ) isn’t all that bad – it actually just depends on whether you can find rhythm with it. ( Granted, I’ve also been in environments where finding that rhythm is impossible )

    Oh yeah – I’m my own boss, so I totally understand the need for the “crunch”-period from a business perspective…

    Then, the interesting part from what CDPR said… “Reinventing that wheel”
    This term is often thrown around by devs when pointing out that a piece of code / system already exists to satisfy the need – I’m a firm believer, that if you’re capable of making that wheel more round than it already is, go ahead bud, get closer to that 360 degrees, because no system / piece of code satiates EVERY possible need… aside from if you want to print “Hello World” to standard output… 😐

    ( *Disclaimer – I’m a CDPR fanboy and can’t view them in a negative light at all… )

    Reply

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