Some employees at CD Projekt Crimson, the Polish developer of Cyberpunk 2077 and the Witcher video games, have shaped the Polish Gamedev Employees Union in response to latest layoffs on the studio.
The union is open to anybody working wherever within the sport business beneath a Polish contract, though at current it solely has an organization fee at CD Projekt Crimson (with an unknown variety of members), and can initially be targeted on enhancing the lives of staff there. It’s a part of a a lot bigger Polish union, OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza.
The union mentioned it was CD Projekt Crimson’s choice to put off round 100 employees — 9% of its workforce — in 2023 that prompted its formation. The corporate has simply launched Phantom Liberty, the primary and solely enlargement for Cyberpunk 2077, and is now winding down work on that sport because it builds in the direction of a brand new Witcher title and a Cyberpunk sequel, in addition to a number of different initiatives.
“We began speaking about unionizing after the 2023 wave of layoffs,” The Polish Gamedev Employees Union said in a FAQ on its site. “This occasion created an amazing quantity of stress and insecurity, affecting our psychological well being and resulting in the creation of this union in response. Having a union means having extra safety, transparency, higher safety, and a stronger voice in instances of disaster. […] We consider that the mass layoffs are a hazard to the gamedev business and we consider that unionizing is a approach for us to protect the business’s potential.”
The union mentioned its precedence was to present CD Projekt Crimson employees a voice in firm decision-making, with a view to rising employment stability. It additionally needs to assist employees’ voices be heard on working situations “in the long term.”
In an interview with Polish web site CD Action, union founders Lev Ki and Paweł Myszka — each CD Projekt Crimson staff, working in programming and QA respectively — mentioned that the studio had really made nice strides in enhancing working situations, particularly in eliminating crunch. CD Projekt Crimson had sworn it could attempt to ship Cyberpunk 2077 with out crunch, however reportedly failed on this purpose. Evidently, with Phantom Liberty, it has lastly made good on its promise.
“Whereas engaged on Phantom Liberty there was no crunch, definitely to not the identical extent as with the [base game],” Myszka instructed CD Motion (through Google Translate). “There have been extra time hours just for these prepared, paid or taken as trip days. The corporate launched an anti-crunch coverage, which was persistently carried out and enforced. Agile [development] has certainly additionally been launched, however do not forget that the agile methodology is a course of, you can’t merely change to Agile, you might be continually implementing it. This has really been achieved and the environment within the firm is nice.”
Myszka additionally pointed to the nice and cozy reception to Phantom Liberty from critics and followers, versus the buggy and unfinished launch of Cyberpunk 2077. “All the improvement of Phantom Liberty has confirmed that once you deal with an worker nicely, he provides extra of himself and the top results of his work is healthier. This interprets into increased product high quality. The commerce union exists to keep up this excessive normal of working situations and enhance these components that could possibly be higher.”
Ki declined to present the variety of CD Projekt Crimson staff who had signed as much as the union for authorized causes, however famous {that a} minimal of 10 had been wanted for the union to be shaped. The 2 founders mentioned that they’d but to obtain any response to the formation of the union from CD Projekt Crimson’s administration, however that they’d met with no resistance or interference but. Their hope is to enhance the lot of employees throughout the Polish sport business, and to teach extra employees on the advantages of full employment contracts, versus freelance contracting which is seemingly widespread within the nation.
Polygon has requested CD Projekt Crimson for remark.