The REAL Reason Cyberpunk 2077 Just Got Delayed
CD Projekt RED confirm a crunch period will be necessary to finish the game.
Last night, CD Projekt RED announced that Cyberpunk 2077 had been delayed from its original April 16th date until September 17th 2020. The news follows similar delays suffered by other high-profile games this week including Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Remake and Marvel's Avengers.
The official press release from CDPR reassured fans that there was nothing wrong with the title, and the game has been playable from start to finish for months, but the extra time was required to ensure it's as polished as possible. It was also revealed that despite the proximity to new consoles, Cyberpunk is not being planned as a next-gen release, and that the delay has subsequently delayed the AAA Cyberpunk multiplayer game the team was also working on until 2022.
However, on top of the official statement, joint CEO of the company Adam Kiciński hosted a Q&A with press to answer any questions, which revealed that the delay wouldn't come without a price. When asked whether or not the extra time would mean strain on the developers and a crunch period, Kiciński admitted:
"To some degree, yes – to be honest. We try to limit crunch as much as possible, but it is the final stage. We try to be reasonable in this regard, but yes. Unfortunately."
When crunch became a pressing issue in the industry last year thanks to a selection of deep dives from publications like Kotaku, CDPR made claims that they were working on trying to fix crunch culture in their teams, especially after a heavily-publicised crunch period on The Witcher 3.
However, the company is yet to make it clear just what practices they've put in place, and have continued to distance themselves from portraying their own crunch as being particularly punishing. In October, executives discussed how working extra hours was viewed as necessary:
"We get a lot of new guys coming in, and they go, 'Oh god, this is like too much.' But then we have other guys come in from Rockstar Games, and they're like, 'This is not even crunch!' We're doing the best we can to keep the work under control. But sometimes when you're doing some big-ass game like this, it's not always possible to do that. It takes really hard work to make it really awesome."
Hopefully, the delay on Cyberpunk will mean the developers won't have to crunch as extensively as they would if the April date was unmovable, but it's still clearly an issue that isn't going away just yet.