The developer behind the Witcher series and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, CD PROJEKT RED, has released a response to recent comments on their studio, specifically on developer departures, employee treatment, and the state of Cyberpunk 2077.
The statement from CD PROJEKT RED (CDPR) details how their studio has "almost doubled" its headcount since releasing The Witcher 3 and is still growing. It goes on to note that, yes, people quit, but that doesn't put their games in danger.
"So, does a departure, even a high profile one, mean that the project is in danger? One would need to be very courageous to base the future of an AAA role-playing game of such scope on one person (or a few people)."
The statement is closed out with a comment on Cyberpunk 2077's progress and suggests we won't be hearing much about the project:
"Cyberpunk 2077 is progressing as planned, but we are taking our time – in this case, silence is the cost of making a great game."
Check out the statement as a whole below:
If you're confused as to why CDPR released this statement, it's because someone went through their company reviews and found a slew of bad reviews for the company. These reviews stated things like how surprised employees were that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt actually made a release and others cast doubt Cyberpunk 2077's release.
Since 2015, reviews of CDPR from both former and current employees (found on Glassdoor) have been mixed at best. While the positive aspects of working at the company vary from review to review, the negative aspects remain the same. It appears as though most reviews state that middle managers at CDPR don't play games and do not care about their teams, goals/milestones are fake and only created to 'squeeze' everything they can out of each employee, pay is minimal (with no real pay raise), and crunch times are 'enormous' with multiple individuals claiming a constant 10 – 12 hour work days for six to seven days a week.
Unfortunately, the problems listed on Glass Door aren't simply found at CDPR, these issues are an industry-wide problem. Many studios find themselves with overworked and underpaid developers when it comes to crunch time and it's something that should change.
That being said, it's interesting how the reviews on Glassdoor are dated for CDPR. There are multiple reviews on specific days or a cluster of days, then silence.
