CD Projekt: “Some people seem to prefer us as bad guys because of our ideological narrative”

Łukasz Szczepankowski, the chief technical designer of CD Projekt, has commented on the recent controversy over the studio’s mandatory crunch.
CD Projekt RED, also known as CDPR, has had perhaps a little more controversy than perhaps they expected. If you remember correctly, the studio asked its employees for 6 days of work per week, all of which were ahead of the release of Cyberpunk 2077. This meant that they would work an extra day at the weekend, although it would be compensated in the employees’ salary, although the company was known to criticize the crunch and deny its practices in the company, to end up squarely in it.

Adrian Chmielarz, a well-known Polish developer and founder of People Can Fly and of his current studio, The Astronauts, wrote a long message on Facebook this Sunday to say that crunch is not always cynical and that this whole situation is more than black and white as some might think.

Łukasz Szczepankowski, the studio’s chief technical designer, quickly responded to the message to say that, in fact, the studio managers are not exploitative capitalists. “I can only confirm the words of Adrian Chmielarz. Even if situations like the ones he describes come up, my experience shows that the developers have respective solidarity in this respect from the bottom up, regardless of their position, I have to disappoint you,” the message began.

“The managers of these games are not capitalists and exploiters who count their money while smoking a cigar and looking at the oppressed workers in the background at times (as picturesque as this image sounds). When the director of Cyberpunk 2077, Adam Badowski, responded to the issue, he again stressed that the company will share 10% of its annual profits with the development team, although one user was skeptical about this.

It was then that Szczepankowski replied that this practice had been going on for some time, also stating why some people enjoyed the image of CDPR being one of the “bad guys”. “I wonder what is funny about this statement, CDPR has been sharing its benefits for a long time and without excuses. Maybe it’s laughter amidst tears. Seriously, I get the impression that some people just prefer us to be the bad guys just to have a basis for their ideological narrative.

Cyberpunk 2077, in the absence of polishing details and bugs, is already gold and is finished, so it only remains for that long-awaited November 19 to arrive