Ever since the end of September, news that the developers at CDProjektRed would be mandated to work overtime to finish Cyberpunk has rocked the internet and lead to widespread debate. But as of yesterday, during Game Informer’s latest podcast, associate editor Liana Ruppert made several claims siting CD Projekt Red sources that Cyberpunk 2077 potentially could have been delayed for the third time, but the majority of developers supported working an extra day for six weeks.
Along with these initial statements, Game Informer’s Liana Ruppert also expressed work cultures between the United States and Poland are vastly different and that none of the developers she spoke to saw this latest mandatory overtime as crunch.
Further on, it was expressed that the crunch story was blown out of proportions. So much so that one of the developers at CDPR felt scared about being publicly proud about Cyberpunk 2077 going gold. A day later, what was said in the podcast was brought to public attention after Youtuber LegacyKillaHD made the following tweet:
BREAKING: @gameinformer reports, citing CDPR sources, that the #Cyberpunk2077 "crunch" story was blown out of proportion & some devs were even scared to celebrate the game going gold.
CDPR did consider delaying again but mass majority of devs supported extra day for 6 weeks. pic.twitter.com/hUip5hHX7m
— Michael (@LegacyKillaHD) October 9, 2020
After this tweet started gaining traction Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier made the following statement about Cyberpunk 2077 below, disputing Game Informer’s claims.
A Game Informer podcast recently suggested that my reporting on Cyberpunk 2077's crunch is incorrect. Nevermind that I've interviewed nearly a dozen CDPR devs. Here's an email from studio head Adam Badowski in June 2020 apologizing to the developers' partners for all the overtime pic.twitter.com/MFCnpfQdQ8
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 9, 2020
In the statement, he states that Game Informer suggested that his reporting was incorrect, and this would later go on to spawn further debate and hostility among Twitter users regarding the CDPR crunch situation and the statements made in the podcast.
At the end of the day, The situation surrounding this Cyberpunk 2077 “crunch” debacle is a complex one and a seemingly divisive one too, but it shouldn’t be. Crunch is an abusive and exploitative practice, and from what I have seen no one has ever stated otherwise. Along with this, we shouldn’t let this drive us away from the whole point of the discussion, the well being of the developers at CDPR. Let us know in the comments below what you think regarding the recent Game Informer podcast’s statements and let’s strive towards civility.
