Some highlights:
But they probably definitely will be ready to launch on December 10th – or at least that’s what he says in response to an investor asking if the studio can really be comfortable saying it’s going to actually come out on the 10th: “That’s more or less what I’m saying, I guess – yes.”
Later in the transcript it gets really bad, with some incredibly poor comments about crunch, and some hilarious pretzeling over whether or not there is actually a “problem” with current-gen builds. But several of the investor questions boil down to “but m8, is it definitely coming out in December? Because you’ve said this before?”
Regarding crunch, which has deservedly been a bit of a PR nightmare for them of late, Kicińsk says that “actually, it’s not that bad – and never was”, which is a hell of a pull quote. Although he acknowledges that some people are “crunching heavily”, he says most of the team aren’t at all because they’ve finished their portion of development (were they crunching before? Who knows!). At this stage “it’s mostly about Q&A and engineers, programmers”, (which still sounds like a lot of people, if you ask me), and in any case the crunch is “not that heavy.” Those who are crunching will, y’know, have that crunch extended for the duration of the three week delay, but according to Kicińsk everyone is happy with the delay! So no worries! Pay no attention to the crunch behind the curtain!
This tone apparently did not go down well with staff: Bloomberg News reporter Jason Schreier tweeted that he has been passed an email sent to CDPR staff from Kicińsk apologising for his comments on crunch. “I had not wanted to comment on crunch,” quotes Schreier, apparently from this email, “yet I still did, and I did it in a demeaning and harmful way… What I said was not even unfortunate, it was utterly bad.”
Oh and the developers found out about the extra crunch the same time everyone else did.
At this stage “it’s mostly about Q&A and engineers, programmers”, (which still sounds like a lot of people, if you ask me)
this sounds like every position a game dev can have lol
Wtf is this comment, the stemlords are the last in the chain. If the designers run over their deadline that just gives the engineers less time.
And of course, no empathy for the people actually being crunched, based on them going into a field you assume is all chud
Its hilarious their response to "crunch" was that they would be splitting profits amongst the "team", however they stated only the profits from 2020.
What a surprise that they keep delaying the game...if they push it all the way to 2021, that eliminates the need to share anything.
Haaaaa, you get all the profits from the 3 days it was out in December. Of course, it won't even turn a profit in that time, it sounds like it was expensive to make. Ah, well.
how the hell can they say that though, the weeks and months they've spent on crunch, all for 10% of 3 weeks worth of profit not even revenue. I know I'm preaching to the choir but goddamn I hate these leeches so much.
They need to go on strike and sabotage their current product for a immediate contract renegotiation yesterday cuss this shit is fucked.
Oh lord what a snowstorm this will be when it gets delayed again and misses the holiday deadline. They're really painting themselves into a corner with how often they keep lying to press and employees: if the Day 0 patch isn't borderline perfect the g*mer rage will be a sight to behold. I wonder if its a decent way to start radicalizing libs over; pointing out where capitalism has forced things to be worse for both the employees and them as consumers
The entirety of video game development should be an easy channel to radicalise libs through, last time I tried with my friend I got the fabulous "Capitalism isnt that bad actually." response. G#mers are some of the more notariously cultish examples of consumers out there.
G#mers are some of the more notariously cultish examples of consumers
petite bourgeois failsons have nothing else to do with their time but consume bourgeois product.
Eh, "this luxury segment of entertainment industry would be better for its current middle class target audience under socialism" isn't a take I nessary buy. Creative fields aren't as easy to quantify as production of coal and socialist countries have a sad history of artists being screwed over by bureaucrats.
socialist countries have a sad history of artists being screwed over by bureaucrats.
Sure, but that's not really a feature of socialism is it? Bureaucrats are certainly prone to meddle with art in capitalist countries - the plethora of countries that censor lgbt themes comes to mind.
You do bring up an interesting point about luxury or triple A games though. Under a progressed socialism where mega corporations are gone, I doubt many people will subject themselves to the hellish hours it takes to make a game like Red Dead 2, so games like that will be much rarer and take much longer to come out if they still do at all. On the other hand, passion projects and experimental works would become much more common since they wouldn't need to be profitable (I'm no expert but I believe the art unions in the USSR were meant to foster this). While people idealize the relative creative freedom modern indie developers have to triple A developers, their output is still obviously dictated by the profit motive. There's a reason so many indie games are roguelikes. They require a much shorter gameplay loop then most games, and they still sell.
My point is that what art to invest into is a serious problem even for socialism, in a way something more tangible like which chairs to make isn't. Le Guin acknowledged this in the Dispossessed where in her anarchist utopia there is this composer who had tensions with art establishment because his work was too experimental and daring.
Soviet model substitutes profit motive for a commission of people distinguished in the field put there by party leadership. Is it better? Maybe. Still, commissions like that did fuck up a lot.
central planning is already here through amazon and wallmart for consumer taste. we can easily with big data understand what trends people want and give them media they actually want not a 6th shrek movie.
But that's the thing, good art isn't just about what most people want or what's popular. Some would even argue that art that touches some people in a way that is not mathematically quantifiable is more important than a quality people pleasing product with mass appeal.
Creative fields aren’t as easy to quantify as production of coal and socialist countries
Have you actually asked the people in creative fields in capitalist countries that understand the two systems properly whether they think the creative fields are better in one rather than the other?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWqvaMEFIdI
how you quickly learn that investor calls are complete bullshit
This seems like a career ender for anyone involved in managing this dumpster fire.
Also I just saw that clip of katana gameplay last night where the character swings the sword and when it grazes an enemy their head just kinda clunkily falls off. I wonder if they actually meaningfully reworked the combat or if it's still gonna be that shitty
Sure but if you're a project manager and your project sees half a dozen delays and months of crunch you're probably gonna get sacked
Nah they just reshuffle around either in the company or outside. It's usually the same faces doing the same brutal repression of the hundreds of engineers putting their everything into these projects
Cross gen games in which the game has to be the same (execpt for graphics of course) across generations are always a disaster. Battlefield 4, need for speed rivals, and call of duty ghosts are perfect examples, all of them were a buggy mess
They promised they would do this without crunch and the CEO even went as far to say crunch time was a symbol of failure and they wouldn't do it. Now they've had the 6 weeks of mandated weekend work, and that's still going on until around December 10th presumably. Some of those workers are pulling 100 hour weeks already. And what are they gonna get in return? An employer paid gym pass? Free fresh fruit and coffee in the office? 10% profit share between 1000 or so workers?
It doesn't matter if the owner says he's against bad employment practices, it doesn't matter if they hand a little bit extra back to their workers of the enormous amount of stolen value, you need a union together or to be in a co-op.
Co-founder is literally a billionaire, but yes, let's give the people who make the game 10% of the profit share....for 2020 sales. I fucking wish this industry would unionise.
What's everyone's bets on release date? I'm guessing March 2021 at the earliest
They're going to go with the FIFA model and release it in late 2076.
But then they'll have to deal with the game looking and running like shit on the ps4 and Xbox one, and any pc that doesn't have god tier specs. It's interesting what the path forward here is.
It’s possible that CDPR have been a bit hoist on their own pet toad
wait, is this some malapropism like saying "bone apple tea" when you're about to eat something on instagram?
What, can you get a pet frog in the game? (and not just the RPG, but this game)
In the article comments:
@SwampRat I’ve come screaming in to defend my honour here: not an accident. I routinely replace petard with pet toad because it’s the punchline to a joke with a really long set up from one episode of a 90s TV show. Basically a lot of the time I commit the cardinal sin of writing for an audience of one, that being myself…
Ah fair, pretty obscure (gonna claim Poe's law on this one), but I don't mind giving them the benefit of the doubt
Good catch
