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Adam Kicinski, Co-CEO of CD Projekt Red, has apologised to employees for statements he made claiming that crunch on Cyberpunk 2077 was “not that bad.”
The original comments were made during a call to investors, addressing the game’s third delay to December 10th, and the reports about crunch at the company.
“Regarding crunch; actually, it’s not that bad – and never was,” said Kicinski.
“Of course it’s a story that has been pickedup by the media, and some people have been crunching heavily, but a large part of the team is notcrunching at all since they have finished their work; it’s mostly about Q&A and engineers, programmers– but it’s not that heavy; of course, it will be extended a bit, but we have feedback from the team; they’re happy about the extra three weeks, so we don’t see any threats regarding crunch.”
The comments, once public caused an immediate backlash. In response, Kicinski has apologised to CDPR employees, in an email obtained by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.
“I had not wanted to comment on crunch, yet I still did, and I did it in a demeaning and harmful way,” he said. “Truth be told, it’s only now, when the stress connected with the delay decision an the call itself is lifting, that I’m fulling realizing the extent of my words.”
“I have nothing to say in my defense. What I said was not even unfortunate, it was utterly bad. For that, please accept my most sincere and honest apologies.”
The anticipated game has been plagued by delays and reports of crunch. Back in September it was reported that CDPR has ordered mandatory crunch on the project, despite earlier promises to avoid doing so.
“Starting today, the entire (development) studio is in overdrive,” wrote CD Projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski in an email to employees, later explaining that this meant “your typical amount of work and one day of the weekend.”
