CD Projekt Red has had to deal with multiple accusations from a number of different sources regarding Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch on PS4 and Xbox One, with the most recent being an insider report written by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier. In the report, CD Projekt Red was accused of ignoring internal warnings about Cyberpunk 2077's performance issues, showing an entirely fake demo during E3 in 2018, and employees violating company rules by speaking Polish in the same room as non-Polish co-workers.
CD Projekt Red's Head of Studio, Adam Badowski, has now come out on Twitter addressing some of the issues raised in Schreier's report. Around half of the statement challenges the report of the fake demo shown during E3, describing the development process and how games are not made in a "linear fashion". Badowksi also claims "that's what the "work in progress" watermark is for" and maintains that the "final game looks and plays way better than what that demo ever was".
In regards to the accusation that CD Projekt Red knew the game wasn't ready to release and ignored internal warnings, Badowski doesn't outright debunk the claim but instead chooses to pick fault with Schreier's wording in his report which states most of the staff knew and openly said it wouldn't be ready:
"You've talked with 20 people, some being ex-employees, only 1 of whom is not anonymous. I wouldn't call that "most" of the over 500-people staff openly said what you claim."
The most troubling aspect of Badowski's statement is the topics that he seems to take issue with. The report by Schreier highlights the fake demo and internal warnings, but also levels some much more serious accusations at CD Projekt Red. These included claims that staff was pressured by their managers to work extra hours despite being told overtime wasn't mandatory, and that one ex-employee had some friends that "lost their families" due to work commitments. There have been numerous articles about "crunch culture" at CD Projekt Red, and this new statement from Badowski lacks any acknowledgment of crunch within the company.
Currently, CD Projekt Red is working on eliminating bugs from all versions of Cyberpunk 2077 and outlined a roadmap going forward, apologizing for the game's release in a video on Twitter. The company is also targeting the second half of 2021 for the release of the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game. There's also still no news on when Cyberpunk 2077 will be returning to the PlayStation store after it was removed in December last year.
Source: Bloomberg