Cyberpunk 2077 – CD Projekt Red Reportedly Changing Developer Bonus Structure After Launch Issues

Following launch issues related to Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red has reportedly changed its developer’s bonus structure to ensure that they will continue to receive their bonuses. As Bloomberg reported, CD Projekt SA executives have assumed responsibility for the buggy release. of the long awaited title. Cyberpunk 2077 this week “and we’ve made changes to ensure that the team” will receive their full bonuses no matter how the game is reviewed. “

“We initially had a bonus system that focused on game ratings and release date, but after considering it, we feel the move is simply not fair under the circumstances,” wrote Adam Badowski, studio head and creative director of Cyberpunk 2077, in the email to staff obtained by Bloomberg. “We underestimated the length and complexity involved in making this a reality, yet you still did everything you could to deliver an ambitious and special game.”

At the time of this writing, Cyberpunk 2077 has a 90 on the Metacritic aggregate review site, revealing the high standards that the team had set for itself. Despite these high review scores, the release of Cyberpunk 2077 has been affected by many factors, including a possible seizure-inducing sequence in the game, poor performance on the PS4 and Xbox One base units, and entitled songs. that can cause DMCA attacks for broadcasters. Additionally, these and other issues have caused CD Projekt Red’s stock to drop 29% around the launch of Cyberpunk 2077.

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Current and former employees spoke with Bloomberg about how the bonus structure for Cyberpunk 2077 developers previously worked, and it’s a bit complicated. Each month, team leaders handed out tokens, in the style of the company logo, no less, to “the members of their team who felt they deserved honors.”

These tokens could be transferred to bonuses if Cyberpunk 2077 met certain criteria. Under the revised system, those “payments will be guaranteed even though Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed and the review score has been mixed.” Bloomberg also notes that these bonuses come “in addition to regular annual profit sharing payments,” but that “there has been concern that it would push them to work longer hours.”

This ties in with an earlier report that revealed that CD Projekt Red had enacted mandatory six-day workweeks to complete work on Cyberpunk 2077. This came after promises that no crises would be implemented.

All these issues aside, Cyberpunk 2077 appears to be a true commercial success. CD Projekt revealed that its pre-order sales had already covered the entire development and marketing cost of the game, and that Cyberpunk 2077 had sold 8 million copies prior to launch.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.