The director behind the recently-announced new Rockstar coming under fire for reports of crunch while developing games. In addition to fostering a potentially toxic workplace environment, employee crunch can prove to be counterproductive, as exemplified by reports of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga’s many delays allegedly being partially caused by pressure from higher-ups leading to staff working upwards of 80 to 100 hours a week.
CD Projekt Red, the developer of critically-acclaimed The Witcher 3, has not been immune from employee crunch either, at least according to allegations surrounding the Cyberpunk 2077 released with game-breaking bugs and glitches that lent credence to the popular belief that the game still needed more time to develop.
CD Projekt Red may have learned from the controversy surrounding Cyberpunk 2077, as the game developer behind the newly-announced Witcher project has promised that there won’t be any employee crunch during development. As reported by Game Rant, Twitter octolingtime pointed out CDPR’s alleged history of “horrible crunch” after Gwent Game Director Jason Slama announced his involvement with the next AAA Witcher game. Slama responded to the tweet by promising that such practices will never happen “on my watch” - giving fans hope that CDPR will ensure a healthier work environment while developing its next, highly anticipated project.
The surprise announcement of a new Witcher game sent shockwaves throughout the internet yesterday, March 21, so much so that the official Witcher website crashed mere moments after the news went live. Fans have wasted little time in drawing their own theories surrounding the new title’s story and playable protagonist, fueled by CD Projekt Red later reveling that this latest Witcher game won’t be a direct sequel to 2015’s The Witcher 3. Further developments have indicated that CDPR will create the next Witcher title using Unreal Engine 5 instead of the in-house REDengine used for previous Witcher installments and Cyberpunk 2077, and that it won’t be an Epic Games Store exclusive on PCs despite CDPR’s partnership with Epic.
It's going to take a long time for this new Witcher title to be developed, and most fans are willing to wait if it means that CD Projekt Red isn’t crunching its employees to meet deadlines. CDPR has broken its promise not to engage in employee crunch in the past, but hopefully, the backlash from Cyberpunk 2077 and its controversial development cycle will lead the company to treat its workforce better while creating the next The Witcher game.
Source: Jason Slama/Twitter, octolingtime/Twitter (via Game Rant)
