CD Projekt Red has once again announced a delay of its blockbuster RPG Cyberpunk 2077 but, according to comments now circulating online, it did so without first informing the developers currently working on the game.
Shortly after the announcement hit social media, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier shared on Twitter that a source within CDPR says an internal email was sent out announcing the delay at almost the exact same moment a statement was published on CDPR’s social media channels.
That shift now sees Cyberpunk 2077 releasing on December 10, a delay announced less than a month before the November 19 release date marked off during the game’s last delay a few months back.
That announcement hit Twitter today along with the caption “we have important news to share with you” and offers “our humble apologies” to players that had expected the game to launch in mid-November. But given the very public struggle CD Projekt Red has had with crunch culture throughout Cyberpunk 2077’s development, it’s unlikely that delay will give its developers any breathing room.
“We feel we have an amazing game on our hands, and are willing to make every decision, even the hardest ones, if it ultimately leads to you getting a video game you’ll fall in love with,” concludes today’s statement from CDPR studio head Adam Badowski and co-CEO Marcin IwiÅ„ski.
Studio leadership notably backtracked on its anti-crunch promises at the end of September, with an internal email snagged by Bloomberg showing that the company started to mandate six-day workweeks in what was then thought to be the final stretch before launch.
“I know this is in direct opposition to what we’ve said about crunch,” reads Badowski’s comments in that leaked email last month. “It’s also in direct opposition to what I personally grew to believe a while back — that crunch should never be the answer. But we’ve extended all other possible means of navigating the situation.”
Schreier’s tweets note that the nature of post-launch patches mean the development team was likely already expecting to crunch for at least the month past the game’s launch, and this latest delay only pushes that finish line out further.