An email acquired by Bloomberg reveals that developer CD Projekt Red will require their employees to work six-day weeks despite previously stating they would not demand a “crunch” work schedule.
“Starting today, the entire studio is in overdrive,” CD Projekt Red boss Adam Badowski states in the email. “I take it upon myself to receive the full backlash for the decision. I know this is in direct opposition to what we’ve said about crunch. It’s also in direct opposition to what I personally grew to believe a while back – that crunch should never be the answer. But we’ve extended all other possible means of navigating the situation.”
Badowski later tweeted a response to the Bloomberg report in which he once again apologizes for this decision and reveals additional details regarding the time of this crunch period and how employees will be compensated as a result of the schedule change.
As Bloomberg report Jason Schreier notes in the tweet above, CD Project Red had previously approached the media to state that they would be avoiding mandatory crunch periods as they approached the apparent final stretch of Cyberpunk 2077‘s development. That clearly is no longer the case.
There are a few questions that remain unanswered, though, and the first deals with the specific time requirements of this crunch period. While it’s noted that this crunch schedule will involve six-day work weeks, there has been no indication regarding how many additional hours employees will work as a result of that extra day and how, exactly, the extra compensation will be calculated (beyond the revenue share that Badowski mentioned).
It’s also noted in the report that this is a mandatory crunch period and Badowski doesn’t state whether or not there will be exceptions granted in any circumstances. While he says that he believes the “majority” of employees are on-board with this decision, no specific mention is made regarding the employees who do not support this schedule and how their concerns will be addressed.
Finally, we have some questions regarding Badowski’s reference to the idea that they’ve “extended all other possible means.” Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed numerous times now, so we’re not sure why the game wasn’t delayed again beyond possible fan blowback and theoretical retail commitments. Here again, it feels like Badowski could (and maybe should) expand upon the thought process behind this decision in order to better explain why the studio has enacted a highly-controversial crunch schedule despite previous promises to the contrary.