Cyberpunk 2077‘s original delay from April was heartbreaking for a lot of gamers, and with studios delaying or postponing schedules in the wake of the coronavirus, there was concern that 2020’s most anticipated game might get bumped once more. But so far, things are on track, according to CD Projekt Red’s president.
CD Projekt Red announced in January that their cyberpunk epic was being delayed, and in a call with investors the company confirmed that staff would be crunching to meet the deadline. Nothing has changed on that front, but one positive development is that the coronavirus-induced dislocation of process hasn’t resulted in Cyberpunk 2077‘s release being further pushed.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/01/cyberpunk-2077-developers-crunch-pc-ps4-xbox/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/01/cyberpunk-2077-wheres-johnny-1-410×231.jpg” title=”Cyberpunk 2077 Developers Will Be Crunching, CD Projekt RED Tells Investors” excerpt=”Last year, with concerns raising about the hours being worked by developers, CD Projekt RED told Kotaku that the Polish studio had implemented a “non-obligatory crunch policy” so employees wouldn’t have to work extra hours if they weren’t comfortable doing so. Co-founder Marcin Iwiński jumped on Kotaku Splitscreen after E3 2019, making multiple public promises to minimise as much pressure on their developers as possible. In the Splitscreen interview, Iwiński said “we can never be 200% sure that there won’t be some pressure”. In a conference call today with investors, CD Projekt RED confirmed that pressure has arrived.”]
“Our goals haven’t changed; first and foremost, we intend to release Cyberpunk 2077 in September,” Adam Kicinski, CD Projekt Red president and joint CEO, said in a management update posted early Thursday morning.
In a fuller explanation of how the company has adjusted to deal with the coronavirus, CD Projekt Red outlined that they cancelled all conference appearances, cut all travel across borders, improved ventilation in their studios and launched an internal communication campaign to help with foreign language speakers employed by the group:
Cross-border business travel was immediately curtailed, as was access to Company premises by individuals arriving from overseas. The Company cancelled its participation in fairs and conferences, both domestic and foreign, and switched communication with clients and suppliers to online channels.
Hand sanitiser dispensers were installed at Company offices, and ventilation was increased. Acknowledging the needs of foreign language speakers employed at domestic member companies of the Capital Group, an information campaign was launched, providing up-to-date information about the situation and recommendations issued by state authorities in relation to the threat and ultimate materialisation of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Group also rapidly moved to invest in additional technical infrastructure and supporting software, securing its potential future needs with regard to network bandwidth, hardware performance and security concerns, with a view towards facilitating remote work. Faced with the increasing epidemiological threat, and having secured the necessary technical resources, the Management Board of the Company decided and thereafter successfully enacted a comprehensive shift to the Home O!ce model, beginning on 16 March 2020, for all employees of the CD PROJEKT Capital Group (except for a skeleton sta” performing critical duties at the Group’s offices on a rotating shift basis).
This decision was made to ensure the safety of the entire team, and to enable the Studio and the Capital Group as a whole to continue with their operations. The Board’s assessment of the outcomes of the initial weeks of Home Office operations is positive. All critical processes continue to be carried out properly and development work remains on schedule.
CD Projekt also encrypted the hard drives of “all computers involved in remote work” and bought new harder to deal with VPN connections for those connecting from home.
The management update included other figures on Cyberpunk‘s history and success, including the fact that one-third of all Cyberpunk 2077 digital pre-orders were made through GOG.com. The company hasn’t added pre-order transactions into their financials yet, instead opting to report all revenue from those sales “as deferred revenues” until the game launches.
The management update also broke out the importance of each country to CD Projekt Red’s GOG storefront, showing that Australia accounted for four percent of sales on the platform in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Australia also accounted for 2 percent of all Witcher 3 sales in 2019.
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