Cyberpunk 2077 devs unionised partly in response to unexplained layoffs
Communication at CD Projekt has reportedly been lacking at times.
Earlier this month, staff at CD Projekt Red announced that they’ve formed a union, and now more details regarding their motivations for doing so have emerged.
As detailed in a new report from IGN, employees at the publisher the Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077 have suggested that not knowing which of their colleagues would be laid off and not being notified of the reasons behind specific people being let go were both factors in their decision to unionise. Earlier this year, CDPR enacted three separate rounds of layoffs within a single three month period.
According to Paweł Myszka, one of the co-founders of The Polish Gamedev Workers Union, the latter was a major driver behind the growth of support for unionisation among employees at the studio. Under Polish law, union representatives can access information on the current personnel structures of companies, as well as future plans regarding said structures.
This could enable union members to avoid being kept in the dark when it comes to their own job security and that of their colleagues.
“When you have a person close to you who you've worked with for a long time, or you mentored, or any kind of case like that where you know their potential and know their importance to the company and to the games you're making,” Tolly Kulczycki, a technical QA analyst currently working on the next game in the Witcher series, told IGN, “and you see them laid off and you can't find those answers as to why, the cracks begin to show really quickly.”
According to its members, the union, which the report states is yet to be formally recognised by CD Projekt despite dialogue between the two already having kicked off, continues to grow in size, with new contracts that would provide additional protections for developers at Polish studios being cited as its eventual goal.
In a statement to IGN, CD Projekt said in regards to the union that it will “act in accordance with law and comply with legal obligations that might arise from that situation”. It also cited RED Team Representatives, an elected body designed to make recommendations to the company’s management based on employee feedback.
In other news, Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty added some fresh dialogue to the base game’s main quest as a little treat for those who complete the expansion first.