The development of Cyberpunk was restarted in 2016, says Bloomberg -apkrig

More than a month after the release of Cyberpunk 2077, Bloomberg and journalist Jason Schreier come up with an article to shed some light on the operation of the RED Project CD in recent years. It follows the apology of the company’s founder Marcin Iwiński from last week and with reference to several anonymous and one specific source from the current, respectively. former employees reveal several hitherto unknown details. Bloomberg, for example, claims that the development of the game was restarted in 2016, further states that the management was informed of the unsatisfactory technical condition, and yet gave the order to release and make other relatively serious accusations of bad leadership or incorrect targeting of priorities.

Somehow it will turn out

“The previous success of the CD Project was brought by The Sorcerer, a game full of swords and spells, set in a medieval fantasy world. But cyberpunk is perhaps far from this concept in all respects, ”Schreier defines the basis of all possible problems. According to his information, the developers switched from another genre, perspective and technology during the development of Cyberpunk 2077, and all changes in the engine were to be made in parallel with the preparation of the game itself. According to Bloomberg, this should have significantly slowed down the entire development, and it is said that it was enough for the people responsible for all the technical background to have a lead of several months. However, it is fair to add that the development of games is not linear and together with the created content, the requirements for what the game should increase are also increasing. to be able, yet one of the addressed developers likened the creation of Cyberpunk 2077 as if the train was running on tracks that someone is just laying in front of it.

Despite the fact that Cyberpunk 2077 was announced in 2012, it is said that work began on the game only four years later, when, according to Schreier, Adam Badowski became responsible for the running of the studio.

Former audio programmer Adrian Jakubiak spoke openly about the origin of the game, mentioning, for example, that shocking answers such as “We will solve this in the process of asking individual employees how to complete a more technologically demanding title in the same time as they were assigned to Sorcerer 3 Jakubiak further states that he expected a lot of problems, but he never realized how big they could be in the end. However, according to Bloomberg and the addressed developers, the signs came long before the game was released last December – despite the fact that Cyberpunk 2077 was announced in 2012, the game was not actively started until four years later, when, according to Schreier Adam Badowski became responsible for the running of the studio. However, it should be added that even according to his profile on the LinkedIn network, Badowski became the director of the RED Project CD in August 2011 and held the position of game director two years before that. In the incriminating year 2016, however, a big restart was to come and Badowski demanded significant changes in the gameplay and story. “Everything changed next year, including the basic elements of the game such as perspective. High-ranking employees who worked on Sorcerer 3 had a clear idea of ​​how Cyberpunk should come into being, but they came across Badowski, which led to the departure of several of these people, ”adds Bloomberg.

Ignoring problems

Subsequently, the CD Project had to make a huge effort to impress the players and the outside world in general. For this purpose, a playable demonstration was prepared, which we could also see at E3 2018. According to employees, however, Jason Schreier claims that the demo was for the most part fake and was not based on what the developers were supposed to have really prepared. In addition, the developers had to burn several months in its preparation, which would be more efficient to use for the development of the real game, which led to further (internal) delays in the set deadlines and milestones. Because of this, according to Bloomberg, the developers later had to work overtime, remove some unfinished elements and reduce the overall game. All this in the presence of more than 500 employees, twice as many people who worked on the Sorcerer 3, but still only a fraction of the capacities that take care of the creation of similarly ambitious games, for example in Rockstar.

Despite warnings from many employees that the game may not work well on seven-year-old PS4 and Xbox One hardware and that more time is needed for optimization, management has dispelled all concerns by pointing out that somehow managed the Sorcerer and in the case of Cyberpunk 2077 it will be no different. However, according to Schreier, everyone in the studio was well aware that the game was not in acceptable condition and needed more time to complete. Parts of the dialogues were missing, some functions did not work at all, and the game still contained serious bugs, even though the management marked it as ready for the press last October.

Adam Badowski’s answer

Basically, the mentioned director of the CD Projekt RED studio, Adam Badowski, reacted to the article and started another debate, in which Jason Schreier also joined. Badowski posted a long post on his Twitter commenting on it falsely demo, as well as the claim that most employees doubted the release in 2020 and adds an explanation to the situations where some Polish employees did not follow the internal rules and did not speak English at the meetings. The last point, however, was reflected by Schreier himself shortly after the article was published, and he admitted that he emphasized this problem he allegedly exaggerated and it should not be anything serious. After all, as Badowski explains, there are 44 people of different nationalities in the studio, and it is natural that they speak to each other in their mother tongues, although all corporate communication takes place in English, as in other similarly stratified societies.

However, the statement on the sample from E3 2018 (which was published on YouTube a few months later) is very specific and Badowski defends the procedures of the RED Project CD. Precisely because it was not the final form – with which the sample has much in common – the video contains a warning that it is a “work in progress”. “As for the missing parts of the game, it is based only on the process by which the games are created. The elements come and go as we gradually find out whether they work or not, ”explains Badowski. He also states that the game in the final works better than it was demonstrated in 2018 and emphasizes that the PC version received a lot of high marks in the reviews. The version for the previous generation of consoles also mentions and admits that they are now busy fixing them. “We are proud of Cyberpunk 2077 in terms of gaming and art. This is a project that I would not call a disaster, “concludes this point the director of the studio. Assuming that most The staff was sure that the game would not be ready for release in 2020, then only added that Schreier, according to him, spoke to 20 people, only one of whom does not perform anonymously and still works in the studio over 500 people.

Adam, I appreciate the responses. As I’m sure you’re aware, the team declined to respond to my specific questions or provide an interview before my article went live. But if you’d like to give your perspective on the topics you didn’t cover here, I’d be happy to chat any time

– Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 16, 2021

Schreier’s response on social networks is by no means offensive, but the journalist points out that CD Projekt addressed the article before the article was published, but the studio refused to comment. “I am sure you know about the study’s negative reaction to comment on some points, or give me an interview before publishing the article. But if you feel that you would like to present your view on things that you are not talking about now, I would like to talk to you at any time, “says Schreier, opening up space for other similarly tuned articles.