Cyberpunk 2077 arguably suffered one of the worst launches in recent memory. Several employees from CD Projekt Red made statements to Bloomberg contributor Jason Schreier shedding light on how the studio’s ambitious vision became one of the most disappointing games of 2020.
Cyberpunk 2077 released with a slew of bugs, making it nearly unplayable for some gamers. Now the word is spreading of the game’s nightmarish development process.
On January 13, CEO Marcin Iwinski released a statement explaining what happened behind the scenes in the production of Cyberpunk 2077. He attributes the failure to over-ambition. While framed as an apology, he lays much of the blame on the studio’s attempt to optimize the game for previous generation consoles. However, this contradicts some of the information revealed by Bloomberg. In particular, Schreier’s sources claim that the studio had initially hoped to release the game before the beginning of the new console generation. According to the report, this would have allowed them to “double-dip” by releasing a next-gen version a few months later.
The story of what happened to Cyberpunk 2077 will be sadly familiar to anyone with knowledge of recent AAA disasters. Iwinski was telling the truth regarding the studio underestimating the scope of the project. However, this may have been more preventable than he lets on. CD Projekt Red recognized that Cyberpunk 2077 was both an ambitious project and vastly different from the studio’s previous titles. However, production did not begin in earnest until 2016, four years after its announcement. The game also utilized a new engine the was still under development when work on the game started. This slowed progress considerably. One developer compared it to driving a train while the track was still under construction.
2016 brought problems of its own, with Adam Badowski taking over as director. While he helped to get production moving, he also demanded significant changes. It was during this time that the game switched from a third to a first-person perspective. These changes lead to clashes between Badowski and senior team members, resulting in multiple high-level resignations.
Leadership became an ongoing problem at CD Projekt Red during Cyberpunk 2077’s development. The studio more than doubled its personnel to handle the workload. According to employees, leadership struggled to manage the additional staff, and teams were chronically disorganized. The Polish studio also faced problems due to a reliance on western experts to help design the game’s systems. Language and culture barriers worsened the other difficulties faced by CD Projekt Red.
As this was going on, management was more concerned with marketing than development. That was the rationale behind faking Cyberpunk’s E3 2018 demo, a lengthy side project that delayed production by months. Developers were still working on the game’s underlying code and mechanics during the showcase. This attitude allegedly continued well into development, with management ignoring bugs and covering up known problems. Schreier’s sources contradict Iwinski’s claim the studio was unaware of the game glitches. They state that management was fully aware of the game’s condition before launch.
Everyone at CD Project knew the game might not be ready for months or years. That’s why management completely blindsided developers with the 2020 release date. One source told Bloomberg that he thought it was a joke, expecting a delay until 2022. To meet the deadline, the studio quietly went back on its promise not to rely on the industry practice of last-minute “crunch time.” Technically no one was required to work overtime. However, many developers told Bloomberg they felt pressured to take extra shifts. One former audio programmer reported going through thirteen hours of crunch a day. But no matter how much overtime the staff put in, there was simply no meeting the December 2020 deadline.
Untimely, none of this should have been a huge surprise. In 2019, a former CD Projekt Red employee compared the ongoing development of Cyberpunk 2077 to Bioware’s disastrous release of Anthem. The two games shared many of the same development woes. These included poor communication, leadership changes, lack of a unified vision, a “We’ll figure it out along the way” approach to planning, and developers rushing to meet an arbitrary deadline. If there is a silver lining, perhaps the controversy may be the wake-up call the industry needs to prevent this from happening yet again.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Bloomberg
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