Despite the Delay, Cyberpunk 2077 Devs Will Still Have to Crunch

Following the news of the Cyberpunk 2077 delay was an investors Q&A with executive Adam Kiciński where it was confirmed CD Projekt Red developers will be putting in crunch hours to get the sci-fi RPG out by September. During the investor's call, a participant inquired, "is the development team required to put in crunch hours?" Kiciński responded, "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." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/08/27/cyberpunk-2077-gameplay-demo"] In response to another question from the same participant about pushing back the release date, Kiciński elaborated more on why the team decided to delay Cyberpunk 2077 three months ahead of launch. "Why three months before release? Well, we have been waiting and there always comes the moment to decision. We are constantly evaluating the game and we decided if we are to delay this is the right moment, and that with the decision to add five months we would be really sure that we can deliver what we had planned." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=7-cyberpunk-games-to-play-while-youre-waiting-for-cyberpunk-2077&captions=true"] Cyberpunk 2077 was initially set to release on April 16, 2020. It was then postponed to September 17 despite President and CEO Adam Kiciński confirming it's, "complete and playable." The CD Projekt Red executive stated the reason for the delay is needing more time for "playtesting, fixing, and polishing." In the same investor's Q&A, it was also revealed the Cyberpunk 2077 Multiplayer Mode would likely not be playable until after 2021. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-2020-video-game-release&captions=true"] The ethical treatment of game developers has been a major topic of discussion over the years. Vulture's interview with Rockstar Games' VP Dan Houser shed light on crunch culture at Rockstar Games and propelled the issue into mainstream news. Since then, many more stories about game developers and crunch in studios have come to light, including one about CD Projekt Red. With increased awareness of the issue and efforts from game developers to unionize, we may start to see an increase in game publishers and developers taking more time to release their games in the best condition possible. For more on CD Projekt Red's upcoming sci-fi RPG, read up on everything we know about Cyberpunk 2077.