CD Projekt RED CEO Adam Kiciński found himself apologizing to his own staff for making “demeaning” comments about Cyberpunk 2077 crunch.
During a recent earnings call following the game’s delay, Kiciński told investors that crunch at the studio is “not that bad, and never was.” “Of course it’s a story that has been picked up by the media, and some people have been crunching heavily, but a large part of the team is not crunching at all since they have finished their work,” he added. “It’s mostly 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.”
Kiciński comments resulted in backlash from his own staff, prompting him to apologize. In an email obtained by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, the executive – who reportedly owns $70 million in stock – wrote:
From the bottom of my heart, I would like to apologize to everyone for what I said during Tuesday’s investor conference call. I had not wanted to comment on crunch, yet I still did, and I did it in a demeaning and harmful way. Truth be told, it’s only now, when the stress connected with the delay decision and the call itself is lifting, that I’m fully realizing the true 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.
Cyberpunk 2077 will now release on December 10th. Kiciński has said that CD Projekt RED is “maybe not comfortable, but confident” about the new launch date.
[Source: PC Gamer, Jason Schreier]
