On my never ending hunt for new Cyberpunk 2077 information I just stumbled upon this video made by a guy (who looks like he may be Hideo Kojima in disguise) that has been taking a look at the glassdoor.com reviews of CD Projekt Red. He noticed a troubling trend and laid it all out here in his video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBuoexbVEFE
Some points he brings up from the reviews:
Yes, glassdoor is kinda like yelp. So there could be some trolls in there, but the reviews seem way too consistent with specific issues over too many years. (2012-2017)
Still, as the thread about CD Projekt's market capitalisation breaking $3 billion revealed, even if all of this is true, it's working for them as a company... but at what cost?
Cyberpunk 2077 is my most anticipated game ever, and I really hope it's not going to be a mess with how fast it seems the company is growing and taking on amateur talent, while at the same time management seems to have disparate and counter-intuitive visions for projects.
EDIT: Link to the reviews in question.
https://www.glassdoor.ca/Reviews/CD...own&sort.ascending=false&countryRedirect=true
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBuoexbVEFE
Some points he brings up from the reviews:
From 30 Reviews
CD Projekt Red has a rating of 3.1 Stars.
46% would recommend a friend to work there
15% approve of the CEO Adam Badowski
As a comparison:
From 778 reviews
Ubisoft has a ranking of 3.8
85% would recommend a friend to work there
98% approve of CEO Yves Guillemot
From 1668 reviews
EA has 3.9 stars
82% would recommend
95% approve of CEO Andrew Wilson
Reviews range from Dec 2012 untill early this year. Some common threads are as follows:
• Middle management is heavily criticized for not being in tune with gamers and not listening/trusting their employees
• Talent is often lost due to pressure, low salary, bullying and bad decisions
• Long working hours, sometimes paid, sometimes not
• Fake milestones to increase pressure
• Bonus system that is biased towards middle management
• Broken and outdated tools
• Studio has grown too large/too fast (Lack of skill/training/experience in new hires)
• Lack of planning/vision (This would lead credence to the rumor that they scrapped all Cyberpunk pre-production work from prior to 2016)
• No investment in employees
• Constant renovations at the office causing chaos
• Work tends to be lost or done in vain
• Employees aren't kept in the loop of the production schedule
• Culture of blame
• Erratic/absent CEO who "doesn't even like games"
A couple choice quotes from "Advice to Management" section that seems to be in line with the consensus,
"Hire somebody with actual management experience to help this company change. Without this, in five years nobody will want to work at CDPRed."
"Crunch here is insane. We read about Bungie's crunch and ME: Andromeda crunch and laugh. And crunch will hit this current project hard."
"Just retire or focus on family. Please leave making games to people who actually play them, make them and love them."
Yes, glassdoor is kinda like yelp. So there could be some trolls in there, but the reviews seem way too consistent with specific issues over too many years. (2012-2017)
Still, as the thread about CD Projekt's market capitalisation breaking $3 billion revealed, even if all of this is true, it's working for them as a company... but at what cost?
Cyberpunk 2077 is my most anticipated game ever, and I really hope it's not going to be a mess with how fast it seems the company is growing and taking on amateur talent, while at the same time management seems to have disparate and counter-intuitive visions for projects.
EDIT: Link to the reviews in question.
https://www.glassdoor.ca/Reviews/CD...own&sort.ascending=false&countryRedirect=true