Cyberpunk 2077 crunch backlash – CEO apologises to staff for comments

For the past week or so there’s been a lot of discussion about Cyberpunk 2077 crunch at CD Projekt with the team still working flat-out on the game. In an email to staff from CEO Adam Kiciński, he apologised for comments made yesterday during an investor call.

It wasn’t that long ago that crunch leading up to a game’s release was the norm. Fortunately, more studios are waking up to the fact it’s not really acceptable. With Cyberpunk 2077 falling behind schedule, and now another delay, the pressure must have been building on staff at the studio.

Yesterday CEO Adam Kiciński downplayed crunch to investors during their conference call saying:

Regarding crunch; actually, it’s not that bad – and never was. Of course, it’s a story that has been picked up by the media, and some people have been crunching heavily, but a large part of the team is not crunching at all since they have finished their work, it’s mostly about Q&A and engineers, programmers – but it’s not that heavy of course it will be extended a bit, but we have feedback from the team; they’re happy about the extra three weeks, see we don’t see any threats regarding crunch.

Today in an email obtained by Bloomberg to staff, Kiciński realised the comments made were not appropriate in light of the current situation.

Dear all

From the bottom of my heart, I want to apologise to everyone for what I said during Tuesday’s investor conference call. I had not wanted to comment on crunch, yet I still did, and I did it in a demeaning and harmful way. Truth be told, it’s only now, when the stress connected with the delay decision and the call itself is lifting, that I’m fully realising the true extent of my worlds.

I have nothing to say in my defense. What I said was not even unfortunate, it was utterly bad. For that, please accept my most sincere and honest apologies.

I always was, and am still, proud of the heart and soul you put into what you do every day.

Yours humbly

Adam

P.S If anyone wants to talk with me directly, I’m in the boardroom on the first floor, and on Slack.

It’s disappointing that comments made by senior staff has soured many people’s views of both the game and CD Projekt. I sincerely hope that all upper management has learned a tough lesson in light of recent events and some fundamental changes are made for the future.