Bloomberg is reporting that the dev team of Cyberpunk 2077 has confronted the board members of CD Projekt RED’s parent company, CD Projekt SA, over the fiasco of the game’s launch last week.
Citing individuals who were reportedly present at a video conference yesterday, correspondent Jason Schreier described a scene of frustration and hostility as development staff tore into management. It took place shortly before Sony’s announcement regarding the game being delisted on the PlayStation Store.
The meeting reportedly opened with management apologizing for the launch issues. Developers then launched into a series of scathing questions. One member of the team asked why the board announced back in January that the game was “complete and playable” when it has become painfully evident in the wake of the launch that it is neither. The board representatives replied that they would take responsibility for that statement. Another member of the team asked whether they felt hypocritical to make a game about corporate exploitation while expecting their employees to work overtime. That question apparently received only a “vague and noncommittal” response. When asked about what they planned to do about crunch, the directors indicated they had plans to improve production practices in the future, but failed to elaborate.
When asked for comment by Schreier, a CD Projekt SA spokeswoman indicated the company does not comment on internal meetings. CDPR have also publicly apologized for issues at launch, stating that they plan to fix the issues, while understanding if players would instead wish to seek a refund.
Food For Thought
It seems clear that the board of directors for the studio were responsible for setting deadlines. It seems equally clear that they had absolutely no understanding about how to properly manage those deadlines. CDPR’s name is basically “mud” at this point, and the directors are almost certainly aware of that fact. However, they don’t seem to be overly enthusiastic about falling on their swords. Their admission of responsibility is a start, but more needs to be done. We’ll see what happens over the next couple months.
