Witcher 3’s CD Project Red responds to Crunch Accusations

We’ve recently posted an article regarding Witcher 3 and how it will not suffer a visual downgrade. The statement was made in response to an anonymous user on the NeoGAF forum claiming to be an insider from CD Project Red, and laying some big accusations on the company. Not only did he say that Witcher 3 was being built as an “overblown” impression of a game, but also that the development team has been in crunch-mode for over a year in order to keep up with the outlandish boasts of the PR department. Here is one of his quotes: “The bullsh**ting with the Witcher 3 started from day one. PR is creating an overblown vision of a game that doesn’t exist while the team is in crazy crunch time for over a year now”.

The user was “vetted and cleared” by a NeoGAF administrator suggesting that these words were indeed that of someone from inside the polish developer. In response to the accusations several statements were made. One, as previously mentioned, was that the game will not suffer a visual downgrade. The other came from communications executive Michał Platkow-Gilewsk who pointed to demos of the game as proof enough of the game’s quality.

“In principle, we don’t comment on rumors, especially when someone anonymous says that it’s ‘his/her word against CDP PR”, Platkow-Gilewski said in a prepared statement. “So, PR aside, if you have any doubts about Wild Hunt’s quality, have a look at the 35-minute gameplay video we published some time ago, or check out gamers’ reactions to our public previews at Gamescom, San Diego Comic Con, and E3 (it’s all public and available on the studio’s YouTube channel), and decide for yourself.”

However, one issue remained undressed. “Crunch” is an industry term for working for an unreasonable and unhealthy amount of time in the office. It’s a common practice and of course it is ethically complex as most developers, weather working for a studio or being self-employed, impose it on themselves. Sometimes it is even imposed on them, thus it can be considered unequivocally unfair considering the detrimental effect on the quality of life that can be caused by such a regime. CD Project Red was accused of having its team in such a state for over a year, and in regards to this accusations, no response was given, even when specifically asked for.

In March, The Witcher 3 was delayed to February 2015 with the claim that the several extra months of development will allow the achievement of the quality that will satisfy users and developers alike.