CD Projekt Red Assures Fans ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ Is Progressing; Addresses Morale issue

CD Projekt has issued a statement to clarify the rumors circulating about the type of working environment it fosters. In the same statement, the Polish video game developer and publisher gave fans an update on its highly anticipated release, “Cyberpunk 2077.”

This Monday, CD Projekt Red decided to address the elephant in the room in the wake of numerous negative reviews and feedback it received from self-proclaimed “former” employees on company ratings site Glassdoor. “We’d normally avoid commenting on company reviews on spaces like Glassdoor, but this time around … we’d like to elaborate on a few things,” the developer opened its statement.

The first thing that CD Projekt Red addressed in the statement has to do with the departures of some of its employees. The publisher detailed that around the time it released “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” it had over 200 employees. The company added that the figure has since doubled, but it’s inevitable for people to come and go in this scenario.

“Do people leave? Sure they do. We always wish them all the best and respect both their decision and feedback they give us as the reason for their departure.” Nevertheless, CD Projekt Red maintains that there are some things about their working environment that they prefer to keep despite these departures. “We are continuously working on making RED a good workplace for everyone, but we also have a set of values that constitutes who we are and how we do things.”

The developer went on to explain how the exit of a few people or even a high profile member does not affect the goals it has for its projects. “Every role-playing game we ever developed seemed impossible to achieve at the moment we set out to create it … When we start down the road to creating something we know the destination and we’re sure of one thing: even if something feels impossible, it doesn’t mean it is.”

CD Projekt Red worked on “The Witcher 1” for five years prior its release. It also conquered the challenge of creating its own engine just to realize its goals for “The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.” For “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” the developer reinvented the way it creates open world games. Such instances show how serious and dedicated the studio is in making things happen.

The Warsaw, Poland-headquartered studio pointed out that faith, commitment and spirit are the things needed to make what seems to be impossible possible. However, the developer noted that its approach in creating games may not be for everyone. PC Games News says this ambitious behavior of CD Projekt Red could very likely be the cause of employee departures.

“It often requires a conscious effort to ‘reinvent the wheel’ — even if you personally think it already works like a charm … We believe reinventing that wheel every friggin’ time is what makes a better game. It’s what creates innovation and makes it possible for us to say we’ve worked really had on something, and we think it’s worth your hard-earned cash,” the developer stated.

Though CD Projekt Red started its statement saying it’s going to address the morale issue in its workplace, it did not really tackle the issue in the public statement. Instead, it just reassured fans that “Cyberpunk 2077” is “progressing as planned.” However, the work on the upcoming role-playing game is taking a lot of time.

The reactions to CD Projekt Red’s statement are mixed. On Twitter where the developer first shared its statement, many praised the studio, saying it has the best mindset among other developers. Meanwhile, some fans took to Reddit to slam the publisher for evading the issue. “It reads as pretty much just empty HR speak. Of course, a company isn’t going to say, ’yes, we are in fact having morale issues,’” one wrote. “They didn’t really addressed [sic] the morale thing did they? All I gather from this is that ‘Cyberpunk’ is going to take a while,” another commented.