100 Layoffs at CD Projekt RED Amid Organisational Changes

This is actually the third lot of layoffs in the last three months at CDPR including the Molasses Flood and Gwent layoffs from May and June.

Good luck to everyone involved

Hope their severance packages are meaty with all the money they made from conning people into buying Cyberpunk 2077

Tightening themselves up for that Sony purchase

And probably none of those people who got fired are among those who forced a release of CP2077 in 2020

@Anthony_Daniels Sony would be better off spending those funds on scratching posts for Jim Ryan's cats.

It'll be interesting to see what the future holds for CDPR. The devs managed to win back a lot faith through sticking with Cyberpunk and improving it (and if Phantom Liberty's good that'll be another step forward), but the company itself is still feeling the effects of what was a disastrous launch.

Just another example of a AAA game needing to be an absolute, surefire hit.

@Anthony_Daniels a first party WRPG studio would definitely help them with broadening their portfolio genre-wise. Xbox is heavily dominating in that sector.

@Ichiban Not saying there's any real chance of it ever happening, but CDPR still do make great games. Yes, there's no getting around the fact that the release of Cyberpunk 2077 might have been the worst handled AAA release ever, but it was a great game once the PS5 version came out a year later. There's no good excuse for what happened, but with better management (aka Sony), I doubt it would have ever happened.

Again, I don't expect it to ever happen, but I did find it a bit unfair to basically say Sony purchasing them would be a bad move. In the end, this is about the layoffs, and obviously that sucks.

Nothing to joke about here. Hope everyone finds a new job soon.

I personally feel that these layoffs is possibly the start of a greater problem in the Industry ,the terrible launch of cyberpunk said to me that until big gaming company's realise that you simply can't do that or otherwise face the consequences further down the line ,I think the industry is far from in a healthy state ,I wish I felt different but until there's alot of change in the industry then there will be alot more of this ,people are layed off work all the time in different industries but gaming has made some terrible mistakes, what with half finished games etc etc etc, and until big companies stop this nonsense then there's only 1 way I think the gaming industry is headed unfortunately, I hope I'm very wrong

Can't give themselves beefy Christmas bonuses with all those mouths to feed.

Keep the writers! Best in the biz.

@ShogunRok

Adding housing and some cosmetic ***** isn't anything that would win any faith. The game has not changed at all. Fixing it is not making it better. It's making it right.
CDPR golden days are over.

What is wrong with the gaming industry lately? Acquisitions, financial struggles, layoff, development hell, cancellations all over the place. It's all going to pot.

Microsoft better not get the sniffer dogs out. They've taken enough away. If anything Sony could do with a dedicated RPG developer after losing Zenimax.

I’m just shocked to see that a company basically making 1 video game, Cyberpunk as The Witcher 3 was finished years ago no matter how many times they port it, had over 1,000 employees.

Maybe MS is right and the AAA model is no longer sustainable and smaller games in subscription services is the only profitable model. And whatever Nintendo is doing. Gamefreak, that ships 15-20 million selling Pokémon games every year, has a staff of 160, one hundred and sixty. Sure the games look like dreck but they sell tens of millions every year or two.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_Switch_video_games#:~:text=The%20Legend%20of%20Zelda%20franchise,Switch%2C%20selling%2023.97%20million%20copies.

CDPR is putting out 1 game every 5 years w/ 1,000 employees? I don’t think that’s not a sustainable business model.🤷🏻‍♂️

@GADG3Tx87 The exact same problem that Hollywood has: Triple A titles cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce and about that again to market. Factor in the cut of the distributors and they often have to make half a billion to break even. That's why microtransactions and live services are so appealing.

@rjejr what works for one company doesn't work for another. Taylor Swift can re release her albums and break all sorts of records. Other artists cant. Same with Pokemon games. They will sell regardless of quality. It's not a system you can copy. Also, MS hasn't proven to be profitable with GP.

A better example would be Insomniac. Making great games (though perhaps not masterpieces) quickly with relatively small teams.

Lastly, keep in mind that CDPR make extra money from GOG. It may not be as successful as Steam, but it's quite profitable, I think

I don't really see this as news. Hiring and laying off people in the gaming industry is the norm.

I hope the employees get good severance and land on their feet swiftly. You can just see that in any kind of business. Once some taste success, they believe they must expand exponentially, just to realize they've bitten off more than the market allows them to swallow, followed by inevitable downscaling. Employee's have to suffer the consequences.

@ApostateMage agree, the writing in each and every sidequest, fantastic. In the meantime while playing the "oh, it's an exclusive so I have to praise the crap out of it" FF16, the script has my eyes rolling back that I'm afraid they'll just get stuck.

@Yakito1988 Eh - that seems a bit premature.

They never should have released Cyberpunk in the state it was in - but now that it actually, you know, works on most systems… it’s a lot of fun. Not quite great, and it doesn’t live up to its potential - but it’s still one of the better gaming experiences I’ve had in the past few years.

More to the point, though… They’re not a prolific studio, and even the best studios have an occasional misfire. I’d give them another game or two before making pronouncements about their decline.

@dschons 🤣🤣 Xbox isn't dominating in any sector except by gaining a monopoly in the 3rd party industry, as Phil Spencer made clear he would do when he took Xbox 3rd party back in 2017.

As for CDPR... I've yet to see them male a good game worth playing, and no, the incredibly awful Witcher series doesn't come close to being good. That's like saying R* has made a good game, it's factually incorrect.

The layoffs suck, but as we typically see with poorly managed studios who don't put out good games (see Arkane with all their terrible releases for more proof) it's inevitable. There's surely talent there, but sometimes teams don't work well together and they must be split. CDPR just needs to shut its doors before they release yet another terrible game.

@LifeGirl They should really be spending less on games. I can't say I'm an expert in business management and finances, but wouldn't it make more sense to develop smaller, cheaper projects, market them for less, develop and release more, and rely on the sheer quantity of sales to keep them afloat within the same time window? What's this obsession with excessive production value anyway?

@RobynAlecksys They have some of the most critically acclaimed and well-respected WRPG studios under their umbrella whereas Sony doesn't have a single one.

@KilloWertz " but it was a great game once the PS5 version came out a year later"

Really?! It was more stable than the ps4 pro release i'll give you that, but still crashed multiple times through my PS5 playthrough in November 2022 nearly 8 months after the PS5 release. Its inexcusable to crash that often that late after release.

And that's just the quality control side. That's before we even start with the whole pointless story starting paths that really do very little.

Its a hodgepodge of ideas built on a cool visual presentation. I really wanted to like it but its by far one of the most disappointing games in a while. The soundtrack is good, its visually pleasing but the story is fairly poor after the first few hours, the cars handle like crap and the bugs are far too prevalent for a AAA game)

Its very reminiscent of most GTA clones. (to clarify im not saying its a GTA clone before anyone jumps on that) They do some cool things but ultimately lack in most important ones.

@Mythologue every time a game comes out that doesn't look stunning, all I read is comments about its graphics being terrible, that it could have been released on a ps3, etc. If a game doesn't stand out, it fails to turn a profit. We have way too many choices nowadays, especially with all the "free" games.

Possibly tightening up to be bought by Sony??

@GADG3Tx87 What you’re seeing isn’t just the gaming industry. The technology industry is going through the same thing. These companies made record profit during Covid, and hired a bunch off people. Now consumers aren’t spending as much, so it time for layoffs and restructuring.

Just another example of a developer finding some level of success, and then letting the taint that is money turn them into just another Scum company in a long line of scum companies doing scummy things in the name of shareholder profit margins.

It's a shame to see, and when the people at the top are taking top dollar it's always shameful.

Current market cap is just under 4bn, so would probably take a few more to sell, are they worth it? Not sure it's a smart purchase myself given the price, although as a few have mentioned, Sony do lack any sort of RPG studio, so I could see the reason behind one.

@RobynAlecksys “factually incorrect”

You’re trying too hard, mate. Flamebait should be a bit more subtle, otherwise you’ll just provoke a bunch of eye-rolling.

@number1024 yes, could see Sony investing in someway if allowed rather than purchasing outright

@solocapers I never experienced any crashes once I started playing it shortly after the PS5 version came out. I'm not saying that means you're full of crap and that others couldn't have. Strangely, two people could have very different experiences with said game on the same hardware. Just because your experience wasn't as smooth as mine doesn't mean I'm wrong either though.

As for the story and the game itself, that's subjective. Just because you didn't like the game as a whole doesn't mean the game was crap. It didn't work for you and it happens, but as for me it was one of the better gaming experiences I had in a while when I played it. Plenty of other people liked it as well.