It's no secret that Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most highly-anticipated games of 2020 ever since its announcement years ago. Of course, alongside the excitement of fans comes a great responsibility for CD Projekt Red to deliver a high-quality game that will not only satisfy its fanbase but also contribute to the technology behind video games.
Ever since Cyberpunk 2077's announcement, CD Projekt Red has been careful of not overworking its team of developers that would result in a crunch culture within the company, that so many studios have been suffering recently. Of course, this isn't to say that crunch culture is not present in CD Projekt Red, given that the studio was forced to work crunch time during the development of The Witcher 3. Now, it appears that CD Projekt Red is finding itself once again, forced to work double-time as the release date of Cyberpunk 2077 approaches.
Yesterday, reports surfaced that the development of Cyberpunk 2077 is coming at a high price with developers forced to work six days a week. Of course, this is in direct conflict with CD Projekt Red's statement last year that it has not implemented mandatory crunch time, which is one of the primary reasons why Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed twice. However, if crunch culture is indeed an ongoing issue in the development of Cyberpunk 2077, what are its possible effects on the game itself?
Cyberpunk 2077 Could Be Delayed Again
As previously mentioned, Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed a couple of times, which is probably one of the primary reasons why the studio is currently crunching its development to meet the release date of November 19. Earlier this month, the studio released a fiscal update, and CEO Piotr Nielubowicz stated that Cyberpunk 2077 will release as scheduled and that the game won't be delayed again. Of course, given recent developments within the studio, there is now a slight possibility that this promise may be broken, especially if CDPR decides to prioritize the health and wellbeing of its developers rather than meet the release date that has been delayed several times already.
However, one of the most obvious downsides of this scenario is that fans will surely be disappointed once again. Not to mention, the current release date of Cyberpunk 2077 is close to the launch of the next-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and a good number of players upgrading to either the PS5 or Xbox Series X are looking forward to playing Cyberpunk 2077 either through backward compatibility, or once the next-gen versions of the game releases. Of course, while this may prolong the wait for Cyberpunk 2077, it could also result in a better game, and developers won't have to put in an insane amount of hours just to give Cyberpunk 2077 a final polish.
Cyberpunk 2077 Releases On Time But Comes Out Unpolished
On the flipside, CD Projekt Red could also release the game as scheduled, but with fatigued developers, that could most likely result in an unpolished game. It is worth noting that during the second announcement of Cyberpunk 2077's delay, CD Projekt Red noted that while the game is finished in terms of content and gameplay, the developers encountered unexpected bugs, that they are now trying to iron out. Of course, having an open-world as ambitious as the one CDPR claims Cyberpunk 2077 has, this means a huge amount of bugs to fix.
Perfect Game, Burned Out Developers
The last scenario would be for CD Projket Red to deliver Cyberpunk 2077 as scheduled, with little to no problems, but at the expense of the work-life balance of developers, especially in these trying times. Of course, looking at how this affected other games such as The Last of Us 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, and other triple-A games, it could result to CD Projekt Red losing some of its talented developers, who could pack up and leave the studio in search of an alternative workplace that would offer them better hours. As a result, should Cyberpunk 2077 release post-launch content, or even a sequel, then the company losing its talented people could result in lesser quality games in the future.
At the moment, no one knows what the general consensus is inside CD Projekt Red with regards to the new crunch mandate as the studio attempts to polish the game, which is set to release in six weeks. However, CDPR's Badowski defended the company's decision saying that the majority of the team understands the need for the final push, noting that mandate was one of the hardest decisions he's had to make. It has been revealed that employees will be compensated for their extra work, and 10% of annual profits will be split directly to the team.
Having said this, it appears that the last scenario is the course of action CDPR is going to take in the final push to release Cyberpunk 2077. Hopefully, the extra financial benefits that the developers are going to receive will be a just compensation for their hard work and sacrifice to deliver Cyberpunk 2077 as promised.
Cyberpunk 2077 releases November 19 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with dedicated releases on PS5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X/S planned.