It’s no secret that The Witcher 3 is one of, if not the biggest success that CD Projekt RED has had. Konrad Tomaszkiewicz was the director of the game and was assigned as the second director on Cyberpunk 2077. Although where The Witcher 3 was a massive success for CDPR, Cyberpunk 2077 earned the company a very different reputation.
However, the reception of Cyberpunk 2077 is a whole other story. You can check out our older articles if you want to learn more about the lies, staff backstabbing, and other horrid practices that lead to the launch of a game so broken Sony decided to ban it from their store. That’s unprecedented for a AAA game.
CD Projekt RED has been in dire straits recently. Not only did they release one of the worst received games of late, but they also faced lawsuits by investors, being banned from Sony’s PSN store, being hacked, and having private files being leaked online, and now recently one of their top directors has left the studio.
Bullying And A Bad Atmosphere
Given what we’ve heard about crunch at CD Projekt RED, it’s easy to see that the atmosphere is not the best at the company. However, crunch isn’t the only major factor. According to a recent report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, bullying is a problem too. Tomaszkiewicz seems to be the main source of this as well.
Tomaszkiewicz’s accusations received some investigation, which found him not guilty. Despite this, a lot of people have been feeling uncomfortable or stressed around the director. He apologized to the staff for any bad blood he may have caused and decided to resign from the company entirely.
This decision was agreed upon by the company board. In an email to the employees, Tomaszkiewicz promises to work on himself and change for the better. “Changing behavior is a long and arduous process, but I’m not giving up, and I hope to change,” he wrote.
Tomaszkiewicz was obviously going to play a huge part in shaping Cyberpunk going forward, but this seems to not be the case now. The company now has to seriously work to get back to where they were. With their stocks as low as they are now, things are not looking good for them.
The Witcher 3 and its subsequent Netflix adaption may have turned CDPR into Poland’s most valuable company, but Cyberpunk has undone a lot of that success. Hopefully, the departure of Tomaszkiewicz will help morale at the company and force them to improve their working environment.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you think this will be a good or bad thing for CD Projekt RED? Let us know in the comments!