CD Projekt Red has been the subject of a lot of controversy. The company is notorious for its crunch culture, making employees work intense hours over months and sometimes years. A new development suggests that employees were not paid fairly for that time during The Witcher 3’s development.
A former CD Projekt Red employee has revealed they made $430 a month during The Witcher 3’s development. She notes that this has been known for a while and she couldn’t afford to pay for a place. Her husband, having a better paying job, covered their 2 room apartment. CD Projekt Red is based in Poland where the minimum wage in 2014 was sitting around her salary.
So can I now share that i earned $430 monthly for full time work on facial animations on That Great Game 3 in That Great Company That Totally Treats Their Passionately Crunching Employees Fairly
Too soon? Ok
— Ghoulstar (@outstarwalker) October 27, 2020
“No, the crunch is not THAT bad, see, the only people who are crunching are the nerd ones. QA, programming, all nerds. It’s a nerdy thing to do. We’re just allowing them to be nerds. Yes.”
– guy owning $70 million in stock, colorized https://t.co/flY9FQQ4MU
— Ghoulstar (@outstarwalker) October 29, 2020
The dev, who goes by Ghoulstar on Twitter, worked as a facial animator at CD Projekt Red during this time. It’s unclear if wages have gone beyond minimum wage post- The Witcher 3 but many would hope given it was a game of the year nominee. The Witcher 3 has been widely renowned as one of the best games of the last generation as well as one of the best games ever made.
This has worked in CD Projekt Red’s favor as it given them a lot of momentum for their new game, Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk 2020 was originally planned for April 2020 before being pushed to November. It has since been delayed to December 10th. The game’s development has been one of controversy as many feel developers have been forced to crunch for too long with each delay.
