Despite problems with other CD Projekt Red titles, The Witcher 4 Director promises no crunch

Jason Slama, the new game director for the upcoming Witcher game, has promised that there will be no issues at the end of the game’s development. As a former director of Gwent: The Witcher Card Game and UI programmer, The Witcher 4 director is confident of being able to prevent crunch. However, given CD Projekt Red’s infamous crunch periods for previous titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3, that’s a very high bar.

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After The Witcher 4 was revealed as a teaser image, Slama said via tweet that he has already “worked as game director to ensure the success of the next big AAA The Witcher game”. However, one user pointed out CD Projekt RED’s past history in a quote response, accusing Slama of forgetting to mention “the sign-up bonus of horrible crunch and being treated like a dog.” To that, Slama had a short and sweet reply: “Never on my watch!”

The user replied back, disputing Slama’s statement, and not without reason. In fact, CD Projekt Red doesn’t have a strong track record when it comes to downturns in development.

Although Adam Badowski, the developer’s studio head, promised there would be no crisis period for Cyberpunk 2077, it was inevitably done anyway. Within the final two months of the game’s development leading up to release, Badowski announced a studio-wide mandatory crunch — specifically, six-day work weeks and lots of overtime — which was “one of the toughest decisions” he’s had to make.

This came after allegations by anonymous collaborators in 2014 that The Witcher 3 team had also been cracking for a year prior to the release of that game.

Even with lags in The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, crunch time seems to be part of the process for both games. Maybe with the help of Jason Slama, CD Projekt Red can make The Witcher 4 develop differently.

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