There have been a number of rumours about The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt RED as of late, mostly stemming from reviews by ex-staff members on Glassdoor regarding poor studio morale. Now the developer has taken to Twitter to post a statement on these rumours, as well as addressing the development status of their next game Cyberpunk 2077. All the details are below.
Everything We Want To See From The Witcher 4!
The statement is signed by studio Co-founders Marcin Iwinski and Adam Badowski and can be viewed here on Twitter or below. Here are a few snippets on the staff morale situation and the reviews:
"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."
"When we start down the road of creating something, we know the destination and we're sure of one thing: even if something feels impossible, it doesn't mean it is... this approach to making games is not for everyone. It often requires a conscious effort to 'reinvent the wheel' - even if you personally think it already works like a charm. But you know what? We believe reinventing the wheel every friggin' time is what makes a better game."
While the statement is uplifting, it doesn't completely address the problems outlined in the Glassdoor reviews, such as low pay, long hours, large staff turnovers, and management issues. It certainly doesn't deny them anyway.
The studio heads do at least insist that Cyberpunk 2077 is progressing fine, despite the studio's silence on the project since the teaser trailer was released... four years ago?!? WOW.
"Does a departure, even a high profile one, mean that the project is in danger? One would need to be very courageous to base the future of a AAA role-playing game of such scope on one person (or a few people)... Cyberpunk 2077 is progressing as planned, but we are taking our time - in this case, silence is the cost of making a great game."
Hopefully CD Projekt RED can put these issues to bed, internally address the criticism in those Glassdoor reviews if they are true, and we'll be waiting for Cyberpunk 2077 to blow us away as we're sure it will.
