Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
Cyberpunk 2077’s overall launch was horribly mismanaged. It doesn’t feel taboo to say that much. The shady restrictions on information about previous-gen versions of the game, the rush to move it out despite issues, and its shocking state of a bugged mess at the supposed 1.0 were just a few among numerous issues that made it an infamous late release of 2020. Granted, CDPR has worked tirelessly to spruce up the leaky ship that is Cyberpunk 2077 since with numerous extensive patches, but it’s been a long road back to any semblance of good graces. That’s why it may (or may not) come as a surprise that CDPR leads and board members seem to be taking million dollar bonuses with respect to the game.
This claim came out of a recent report over at Bloomberg that alleges that bonuses are rolling out to CDPR management, board members, and staff at the polish developer/publisher. At the highest level, CD Projekt co-CEOs Marcin Iwiński and co-CEO Adam Kiciński will supposedly be getting bonuses running at around $6 million. Similar payouts to a number of the CD Projekt board will run around a supposed collective $28 million.
As noted, bonuses do seemingly include the development staff. However, the report also alleges that the bonuses at the studio level are lower than expected, supposedly ranging from the $5,000 on the lower end to $20,000 for senior employees in vast contrast to the executive and lead levels.
Concerns over the appropriateness of such bonuses were brought up on a recent investor conference call, to which Adam Kiciński seemingly claimed the bonuses were always tied to a certain agreement.
“We earned this money and the company earned this money, of course, but more net profits, more bonuses,” Kiciński explained. “So well, we have results, we get bonuses, and that’s the contract we have.”
This comes on top of the fact that Cyberpunk 2077 caused so much controversy that refund policies had to be updated around it and Sony delisted the game from the PS Store altogether. It forced Marcin Iwiński to issue an apology for the state of the game and has since led to massive patches like Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2, which brought an encyclopedic list of fixes to the game.
Nonetheless, Cyberpunk 2077 also sold over 14 million copies despite these issues in 2020 alone.
Whether it’s fair or not and regardless of agreements in place, Cyberpunk 2077 was arguably mismanaged to an insane degree during its launch. It seems safe to say that leadership over the game taking home such a massive payday despite any and all of that while employees take a paltry sum in comparison doesn’t do CDPR’s image further favors.