Cyberpunk 2077 has gone gold, the game's development team revealed on Twitter. That means it will officially release on November 19 as planned without any further delays.
The announcement was intended to be good news, though some surely can't shake the uncomfortable feeling of celebrating a game where its developers are actively crunching to the finish line. Last week, Cyberpunk 2077's Head of Studio, Adam Badowski, revealed that the team would be going back on their promise to developer Cyberpunk 2077 without mandatory crunch.
But now, after at least two delays and a looming November launch date highlighted in all the expensive Keanu Reeves-driven marketing campaigns, Badowski said there's no other option.
"These last 6 weeks are our final sprint on a project we've all spent much of our lives on," Badowski wrote. "Something we care for deeply. The majority of the team understands that push, especially in light of the fact that we've just sent the game to cert and every day brings us visibly closer to shipping a game we want to be proud of. This is one of the hardest decisions I've had to make, but everyone is well compensated for every extra hour they put in. And, like in recent years, 10% of the annual profit our company generates in 2020 will be split directly among the team."
The message rubbed some people the wrong way not just for breaking the promise, but for indicating that some people on the team don't actually agree with the decision, evidenced by his use of the phrase "majority of the team understands..." Even then, some have argued that those who understand have been trained to feel that way through perhaps years of overwork in the industry.
Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, who has spent much of his own career reporting on crunch in the games industry, summed it up for many folks. "Looking forward to playing this. Best wishes to all the exhausted developers still working long hours to fix as many bugs as they can by release day."
