With Cyberpunk 2077 suffering another delay that pushes the game's release date for 21 days, the issue of crunch has become a hot topic within CD Projekt Red. It's worth remembering that last month, reports surfaced that CD Projekt Red had issued a mandatory crunch order in hopes of releasing Cyberpunk 2077 on time. Now, it appears that CEO Adam Kicinski recently made a statement that appears to downplay the crunch issue.
In a statement made on a recent investor's call, Kicinski acknowledged the mandatory crunch order but said that "it's not that bad--and never was." The CEO then continued to say that while "some people have been crunching heavily, a large part of the team is not crunching at all since they have finished their work." Unsurprisingly, the CEO's comments fueled yet another controversy surrounding the development of Cyberpunk 2077, prompting an apology email sent within CD Projekt Red.
In the transcript of the email obtained by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, Kicinski realized that his comments were "demeaning and harmful" and that he did not want to comment on crunch in the first place. The apology went on to say that "what I said was not even unfortunate, it was utterly bad." The controversial comments made by CDPR's CEO came immediately after the studio announced that Cyberpunk 2077 is getting postponed once again. Of course, the upcoming game's recent delay has become more difficult for fans to accept, especially since CD Projekt Red said in the past that Cyberpunk 2077 wouldn't get delayed again.
As expected, the announcement was met with a fair amount of backlash from fans expecting to get their hands on Cyberpunk 2077 this November. Apparently, some fans took their disappointment to a whole new level by sending threatening letters to some of CD Projekt Red's developers. In response, lead designer Andrzej Zawadzki went on to Twitter to condemn those fans who have crossed the line, reminding them that devs are people too.
Now, it appears that the uncertainty surrounding Cyberpunk 2077's release has taken its toll on CD Projekt Red. Apart from the many controversies surrounding the studio, reports now reveal that CD Projekt Red's stock has declined by 25% since its peak at the end of August. Analysts predict that once Cyberpunk 2077 gets released as scheduled, CD Projekt Red will still recover its losses. However, should another delay occur, the company's stock will likely decline further.
Cyberpunk 2077 releases December 10th for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions also in development.