An anonymous former CD Project Red developer has made claims of the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 undergoing pretty much the same development as BioWare's Anthem.
Apart from being a game that has probably attracted the worst reviews this year, the development team was said to have been under major stress, with reports of a studio crunch surfacing some time ago.
Since then, multiple reports concerning other studios have emerged as well, while houses have been promising not to force their staff to operate under similar conditions. Apex Legends devs Respawn has been at the forefront in that regard, having announced that their updates will continue to be seasonal in order to maintain general developer wellbeing.
Another one of the companies claiming to prioritize developer welfare happens to be CDPR.
“We’re known - let me be humble for a moment here - we are known for treating gamers with respect,” studio co-founder Marcin Iwiński told Kotaku last week. “This is what we’ve been working hard toward. And I actually would [like] for us to also be known for treating developers with respect.”
However, the anonymous former dev has told the aforementioned publication that several parallels could be drawn between the development of Cyberpunk 2077 and Anthem.
“I’ve felt that there are hundreds of parallels that could be drawn between the story of the rocky development of Anthem and the story of the rocky and even-more-rocky-to-become development of Cyberpunk 2077," they wrote in an email. “At times, I’ve felt I could just replace the studio name and the game title, and it would all look so similar, almost identical.”
To be fair, CDPR has always maintained a level of respect in the gaming community. Gamers appreciate the way the studio takes its times with projects, despite having to wait a little longer than planned for games, so such a statement from someone who used to work there has to draw some attention, especially if The Witcher's development process is something to go by.
CD Projekt Red isn't likely to respond to the claims, but Iwiński has revealed that the studio building both the tech for the game and the game itself has made development a major challenge.
“If you’re changing the technology and at the same time you’re producing the game, it’s a nightmare for most of the companies,” studio head and director of Cyberpunk Adam Badowski explained.
We have to assume that every game goes through struggles in development and the God of War "Making Of" documentary lends support to the notion. The Santa Monica PlayStation exclusive turned out to be a masterpiece in spite of the difficulty, so parallels between Anthem's and Cyberpunk's development shouldn't be taken to mean that the latter will end up being a bad game. CDPR's reputation alone could vouch for that.
Cyberpunk 2077's release date is still unknown but it has been rumored that it will be disclosed at E3 next month, so hang tight.