The developer behind The Witcher III and Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red, is set to lay off Around 100 employees in what the studio is calling “several deep transformations” within the company.
Adam Kiciński, CEO of CD Projekt, announced this news today in a blog post on their official website. In it, he stated that after reshaping the development process for ongoing projects in development, such as the upcoming DLC Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, they are “now focusing on refining the shape of their teams.”
Kiciński continued, stating that:
We’ve carefully assessed all teams in the company in terms of their expected contribution to the delivery of our strategy. There’s no easy way to say this, but today we are overstaffed. We have talented people on board who are finishing their tasks and — based on current and expected project needs — we already know we don’t have other opportunities for them in the next year.
As a result of this assessment, 9% of the studio’s current workforce will be released from the company. These layoffs will not all be immediate, however, as some are planned to take place as late as March 2024.
Kiciński continued that the decision to publicize this was made “In the spirit of transparency.” This has been a recurring theme at the company following the release of Cyberpunk 2077, which was riddled with bugs, glitches, and crashes at launch. It was also made clear that employees being let go would receive a “comprehensive severance package.”
This news comes a month after the studio had also announced the layoffs of the remaining 30 members of the Gwent team, with production being brought to an end on this Witcher spin-off.
Whether these changes will alleviate the development culture at the company that leads to a highly criticized crunch time to release Cyberpunk 2077 remains to be seen.
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