While many gamers are excited to enjoy CD Projekt Red’s upcoming title, Cyberpunk 2077, we must ask at what cost it is being brought to consumers. Marcin Iwinski, CEO of CDPR, committed to not enforcing crunch and to support his developers maintaining a healthy work schedule. On Monday, the development team at CD Projekt Red learned that this promise was being broken and they are required to work at least six days a week until the launch of Cyberpunk 2077.

There is no doubt that CDPR has talented developers, but we as an industry can not afford to chew up our talent until their passion is reduced to embers, their health and wellness falters, and toss them aside for the next victim. 

Crunch is one of the main factors in our industry that causes a high rate of departures from both companies and the industry as a whole. Caring for the mental and physical health of developers not only supports the development of the best quality games, but ensures that our industry continues to grow and thrive by supporting those who work to create the titles we love. 

Evan Robinson’s white paper, “Why Crunch Mode Doesn’t Work: Six Lessons”,  shows that long-term useful worker output is maximized near a five-day, 40-hour workweek. Productivity drops immediately upon starting overtime and continues to drop until, at approximately eight 60-hour weeks, the total work done is the same as what would have been done in eight 40-hour weeks.

It is the responsibility of management and leadership to maintain the mental, physical, and emotional health of their teams. While all teams face unforeseen challenges, systematic abuse of workforce resources without course correcting is inappropriate. If management identifies consistent failure to meet deadlines within normal work hours, it is their responsibility to review their process, pipelines, communications, support networks, and expectations and adjust them accordingly to support their team maintaining their health and work-life balance. 

It is our hope that Marcin Iwinski and his team see this as a failure of their leadership and take the steps necessary to protect their developers and ensure that they break this cycle.