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Mass Layoffs at Cyberpunk 2077 Developer CD Projekt Prompt New Union Formation​

In a statement on Gamedevunion, translated by Eurogamer, it’s been announced that CDPR will join others in Poland’s game industry to unionize, something they started taking about after those 9 percent layoffs. Here’s what part of the statement says about the decision:

This event created a tremendous amount of stress and insecurity, affecting our mental health and leading to the creation of this union in response. Having a union means having more security, transparency, better protection, and a stronger voice in times of crisis.

The above shows how employers tend to view their interests to be in conflict with those of their employees. While employees are the ones creating value in this arrangement, they lack any decision power in company-structure-related matters. That is why we need to organize to enter those situations on equal footing.

 

[LakeOf9]

Good

 

[Skifi28]

Did the layoffs come with a "we're sorry" yellow apology letter?

 

[Denton]

Did the layoffs come with a "we're sorry" yellow apology letter?

No, just with few months of heads up and comprehensive severance package.

This is what the guy who started the union says btw

At this point we must emphasize that there was no crunch when working on Phantom Liberty, certainly not to the extent of the "base" version. There were overtime hours only for those willing, paid or taken as vacation days. The company introduced an anti-crunch policy, which was consistently implemented and enforced. Agile has indeed also been introduced, but remember that the agile methodology is a process, you cannot simply switch to agile, you are constantly implementing it. This has actually been achieved and the atmosphere in the company is good.

 

[Nankatsu]

Did the layoffs come with a "we're sorry" yellow apology letter?

Made by AI, don't forget that.

 

[simpatico]

They had a better run than most. I'll take it.

 

[Del_X]

Well they’ll have had a good legacy up until now, I guess.

 

[Kadve]

Well they’ll have had a good legacy up until now, I guess.

CDPR? Then you dont know their pre-Witcher 2 days. PC ports of Dark Sector and Saints Row 2 anyone?

 

[dotnotbot]

CDPR? Then you dont know their pre-Witcher 2 days. PC ports of Dark Sector and Saints Row 2 anyone?

Wasn't that CD Projekt, not CD Projekt Red? They are different companies.

 

[KungFucius]

Their leadership sucks. They pushed the game out on consoles in a horrible state then cut 9% staff when finishing a project that is a success instead of managing a pipeline to keep these people employed.

 

[Roni]

Capitalism! You love to see it.

You turn the ship around and still need to change engines and layoff a tenth of the company because you gotta polish the investors' stiffies and crank that profit up.

Glad to hear there was no crunch, at least. Always harder to swallow a layoff after you've been worked to death. Surprising they could get the update and the expansion out at that quality with no crunch...

Still waiting with another 30 dollars in hand for a second expansion, but I guess they just fired the people who could make it for them.

 

[Ozzie666]

Wait, didn't the game sell 25 million copies and they still lay off people? Shareholder expectations ruined gaming.

 

[Dick Jones]

Did the layoffs come with a "we're sorry" yellow apology letter?

They got free leftover yellow chairs. Parris was heartbroken when he realised that he could have scammed another yellow chair before the layoffs.

 

[nemiroff]

They didn't transition to agile until recently..? Huh..