Cyberpunk 2077 Team Working Six Day Week To Meet November Launch

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And contrary to CD Projekt Red's promises, it's not optional.

(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed numerous times by CD Projekt Red, and for the most part, the community has taken the delays well, preferring a polished release over a rushed, bug-riddled experience. However, now, as reported by Bloomberg, the game studio CD Projekt Red has gone into overdrive for the final pre-release crunch.

Part of this final stretch is that CD Projekt Red has informed employees that 6-day weeks are now mandatory -- something the studio has previously promised wouldn't be asked of its employees.

Adam Badowski, the studio's head responded to Bloomberg and tweeted, acknowledging that this goes against the studio's earlier promises. He promises that all the over hours are paid out per Polish law, and that ten percent of the annual profits will be split through the team.

It's not an unusual practice to see a game studio enter crunch mode in the weeks leading up to the launch, and it's a move that doesn't come as much of a surprise. Over the last few weeks there has been an increasing amount of concern among the public whether CD Projekt Red would meet the November 19 launch. 

In that respect, it's almost impressive that the studio is managing 'only' a 6-week crunch time, as many game launches have much longer and intensive final stretches, which are known to take a heavy toll on team members.

That being said, I can also understand that CD Projekt Red is hesitant for the alternative: yet another delay. A couple extra weeks would normally be manageable, but it would push the game's launch too close to the holidays -- and no matter how much a game is tested in-house, it will always have a few issues after launch -- and it would be quite unpopular to expect a significant portion of the team to work during the holidays to fix the first batch of issues. 

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • m3city
    If those guys and girls have pernament contracts, then they get 150% of nominal wage for the first two overtime hours, and 200% for the rest as per polish law. So, they actually may afford to buy an original Cyberpunk 2077 game when it's released, or even a 3080 when it's available in wild;). We work the most out of european countries, so I wouldn't be suprised if they had this regime going on weeks volountarily till now.
    Reply
  • ThatMouse
    10% of the "profit" is probably not very much is it? Companies typically reinvest profit, so they could calculate that to be whatever number they want. It should be 10% of the revenue.
    Reply
  • m3city
    ThatMouse said:
    10% of the "profit" is probably not very much is it? Companies typically reinvest profit, so they could calculate that to be whatever number they want. It should be 10% of the revenue.

    Quick search gives: consolidated revenue from first half of 2020 is 145 million PLN ~ 37 mil USD. Lets say they will make 80 througout 2020. So its 8 mli $ for 500 people. If spread out equally then thats LOTS of money in polish reality, 16k $. An average pay (after taxes) here is 1k $ (not for developers, but througout country).
    Reply
  • Chung Leong
    ThatMouse said:
    10% of the "profit" is probably not very much is it? Companies typically reinvest profit, so they could calculate that to be whatever number they want. It should be 10% of the revenue.

    You can't treat capital expenses as operating expenses.
    Reply
  • Dantte
    Make them work 24hrs, 7 days a week for 12 months straight...I want perfection. If they drop dead on the job sight, too bad, dont like it, too bad and quit get a different job!

    Welcome to how the US Army operates on deployment, only differences are: there is no option to 'quit', they dont get paid overtime, no comfy bed or home to retreat to, and when its all said and done no one is cheering your name and some will spit on you for your service. So STFU and work harder!
    Reply
  • King_V
    Eh, I know American companies are mostly in denial about it, but I thought European nations were more realistic.... it's a known fact (well, obviously, except for those in denial) that pushing more hours winds up with less productivity per hour, and sometimes even results in negative productivity.
    Reply
  • Shadowclash10
    I wonder how all those CDPR fanboys are reacting to this, haha. Really, the bigger problem is two things: CDPR lied. No avoiding it, that's exactly what they did. Also, I feel like the dev world needs to stop doing this mandatory overtime. How long was this game in development? A few years, right? Like most other games. And how many days will each person work overtime? Less than 30, right? So, if they had been more efficient, they probably could have avoided this. It feels alot like procrastination to me....


    Dantte said:
    Make them work 24hrs, 7 days a week for 12 months straight...I want perfection. If they drop dead on the job sight, too bad, dont like it, too bad and quit get a different job!

    Welcome to how the US Army operates on deployment, only differences are: there is no option to 'quit', they dont get paid overtime, no comfy bed or home to retreat to, and when its all said and done no one is cheering your name and some will spit on you for your service. So STFU and work harder!
    I really hope you're being sarcastic.
    Reply
  • King_V
    Shadowclash10 said:
    I wonder how all those CDPR fanboys are reacting to this, haha. Really, the bigger problem is two things: CDPR lied. No avoiding it, that's exactly what they did. Also, I feel like the dev world needs to stop doing this mandatory overtime.

    On the plus side, at least the mandatory overtime is giving them overtime pay.

    In the US, any sort of compensation for the overtime for salaried workers is at the discretion of the employer. Maybe some bonus in pay, maybe some bonus time off, or maybe just a hearty "Well, at least you have a job, right?" and nothing else . .
    Reply
  • Dantte
    Shadowclash10 said:
    I wonder how all those CDPR fanboys are reacting to this, haha. Really, the bigger problem is two things: CDPR lied. No avoiding it, that's exactly what they did. Also, I feel like the dev world needs to stop doing this mandatory overtime. How long was this game in development? A few years, right? Like most other games. And how many days will each person work overtime? Less than 30, right? So, if they had been more efficient, they probably could have avoided this. It feels alot like procrastination to me....



    I really hope you're being sarcastic.
    First paragraph is me being facetious, the 2nd paragraph is reality and my RL experiences... I want to throw some perspective on this story and the complaining. It can be much much worst and what they have to 'endure' really isnt that bad!
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    Shadowclash10 said:
    How long was this game in development? A few years, right? Like most other games. And how many days will each person work overtime? Less than 30, right? So, if they had been more efficient, they probably could have avoided this. It feels alot like procrastination to me....
    Err... Actually, they announced this game in May of 2012, and the first cinematic teaser trailer was released in January of 2013, almost a year before the Xbox One and PS4 came out. So... more like 8+ years? : 3

    It sounds like there was only a small crew working on it during those initial planning phases though, and they didn't focus development on the game until after the Witcher 3 came out in 2015, though that's still a rather long development cycle.
    Reply