CD Projekt Red, the developer of Cyberpunk 2077, has announced significant layoffs that will affect a significant section of the company’s workers. This disappointing piece of news comes just months after The Witcher developer got considerable accolades for providing employees with menstruation leave.
Workforce reductions continue to be a pretty common practice in the gaming industry, not least because the cyclical nature of game production regularly leaves companies with workforce redundancy. Take-Two Interactive, Relic Entertainment, Team17, 343 Industries, and BioWare, among many more developers and publishers, have all announced layoffs for 2023.
CD Projekt Red will soon join the ranks of video game businesses that are downsizing, according to CEO Adam Kicinski in a July 26 ‘organizational update’.
The CEO indicated that after careful consideration, the studio determined it was overstaffed and chose to lay off 100 individuals, or roughly 9% of its personnel.
The cuts will not be implemented immediately, with some scheduled to take effect as late as the first quarter of 2024. Nonetheless, CD Projekt Red chose to announce them well in advance to give affected employees adequate time to locate alternative work.
Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red intends to provide “comprehensive” severance compensation to all of its employees who will be laid off soon. Kicinski described the impending downsizing as part of the studio’s larger attempts to restructure its teams and production practices to generate high-quality games without delays or crunch time.
Michal Platkow-Gilewski, CD Projekt Red’s VP of PR and Communication, alluded to the project in late June, when he stated that the Cyberpunk 2077 developer needed to mend its relationship with fans.
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