 So I've been covering a story with CD project red in regards to the development of cyberpunk 2077 and Crunch and needless to say You guys haven't always been thrilled with my coverage of it Most people citing that they've been working overtime Pretty much all of 2020 due to the pandemic People citing that you know why we call on this some magical thing like called crunch Why don't we just call it what it is? It's overtime. We all work overtime. What's the big deal? And hey, these people are really well compensated for their overtime. So whatever who cares? They know what they're signing up for right? I mean never mind that they actually typically don't know what they're signing up for a lot of these developers are fresh out of college When they first joined this company and they just keep Basically cycling through them in fact a lot of developers do end up quitting Because of the culture, but it's tough It's tough and I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that it's wrong to have the opinions that you have We all have various opinions recently You know this game was delayed again For I think this is the third or fourth delay Despite the fact it's gone gold very strange to see a game gone golden But is this the first time in gaming history a game has gone gold and then still been delayed very Weird situation. It's an only a three-week delay supposedly. I mean, I don't know who all bets are off I could easily get delayed into 2021 and they basically admitted when they delayed it That they miscalculated the amount of work that still needed to be done Which is a management issue very clearly a massive management issue There's been management issues all throughout pretty much everything that CD project Ever worked on for some reason management can't get their act together, which is technically what leads to crunch We have heard stories at CD project red that hey, you know what if they didn't piss around We could have got a hell of a lot more done over the last four years It might not even need to crunch at all, but yeah, it is what it is Unverified whatever you want to say well Jason Schreier's at it again in wake of this news and Let's just just take a look at what he said about what a confirmed employee according to him again This is Jason Schreier sources. I can't confirm them Is saying about the work environment currently existing at CD project red right now like this is happening right now? So cyberpunk 2077 getting a three-week delay is Unusual but probably won't change much for the developers many of whom were going to be crunching into December anyways For a post launch patch But I sure do hope reality is becoming clearer to those who tried to deny it Try to deny the crunch goes on to say look a CD project red dev told me recently that they just clocked a 100 hour work week Another former dev just told me they saw some of their friends there and they looked physically ill So kindly GTFO with the but but I work long hours to responses, which I'm kind of paraphrasing I don't know if that's actually how he words it But you know what when you consider that there is only You know 168 hours in a week to imagine a hundred hours at a single job is absolute Insanity and that's the reality that's going on a CD project red right now according to Jason Schreier again He's been on the forefront on the battlegrounds against crunch for a long time Why why we call it crunch versus overtime is specifically because What happens in the video game world versus say you know if you're working at a warehouse, right? And it's holiday season and you have to put an extra hours during the holidays or whatever is Projects get mismanaged Almost all crunch happens because of mismanagement It doesn't happen because there's higher demand for a product at a certain time or there's a higher this or a higher that You know, it typically like when we work overtime when a majority of us work overtime in my experience working overtime at various jobs It's because we had an increase in sales during a certain period There was an increase in orders during a certain period Holiday season warehouse workers and other manufacturers might be working overtime because there's just an increase in product demand But see that's not the case here when it comes to the video game space crunch occurs because Development time is wasted by management miscalculated and leading to Basically having to rush things together in the run-up to release and when you rush things together It leads to super long hours and we're talking 100 hour work weeks He just talked to a developer at CD project red that told him. I just got done clocking a 100 hour work week 100 hours how many work weeks do you think a person can go like that and actually be okay? And then a former dev who quit at CD project red probably because of crunch I assume literally said I just saw some of my friends there and they are physically ill They are getting sick. They are they do not look well. Why they're not seeing sunlight. They're not being active They're not seeing their families. Of course. That's an emotional toll. They're not probably eating well There is a physical and emotional toll that happens when you're pushing 100 hour work weeks I don't care what profession it is. I don't care if you're in mining I don't care if you are a web developer I don't care if you're in the personal care industry if you're in the fast food industry I don't care where you are cashier at Walmart. It doesn't matter a hundred hour work weeks is not healthy for anyone So when we talk about we all work overtime, you're right. We do how many of you work a hundred hour weeks at one job But be honest if you're going to be critical of us Saying that this is wrong How many of you work a hundred hour work weeks? How many of you get physically ill because of your overtime not talking about being tired We all get tired Physically ill hundred hour work weeks physically ill you tell me that that's happening at your job Then you have the right to say oh who cares it happens in my profession, too And yes, there's gonna be certain individuals that do put in that kind of work do put in that kind of time I believe Elon Musk at one point pointed out how he basically just works and sleeps, right? So like there are certain individuals out there that that's just their norm but again Does Elon Musk look physically ill? He's clearly taking care of himself. Of course. He's also rich as hell So I'm sure he takes mad vacations when he can the reality is that CD project red is treating their employees almost like slave labor in a sense in a sense they're paid Okay, so I get it slave labor is probably a bad comparison But they're acting like they can treat them that way just because they pay them Being able to compensate your employees well is not an excuse and now you get again The general excuse is gonna come out that they could just quit and they do they quit all the damn time And then the next batch of developers comes along like suckers all excited to work for their favorite company Only to be taken advantage of again and again and again and when the new hires come in You know what they you know what the management tells them we promise there won't be crunch this time They said it publicly just last year to Jason Schreyer the management told Jason Schreyer We are not going to crunch 100-hour work weeks does that sound like they're not crunching oh But they can only work 48 hours legally Since when do companies follow labor laws? Just be an honest and I don't know What's happening? You know, I don't know what can legally be done about this because this is this is gonna kill people Is it gonna take someone dying before this changes? Seriously is a developer going to have to die at his desk coding a game before this changes physically ill 100-hour work weeks. I'm sorry. We how can we just sit back and say this is acceptable and the the other excuse That's gonna come out is this is just one person, you know, this is just how can we believe Jason Schreyer? Are you questioning Jason Schreyer's integrity? Now you can disagree with his opinions on things you can disagree with his takes and his angles But you're gonna think that he has fake that he's just making this up that he has fake sources Is that is that because that's questioning his integrity if he's making this up? Absolutely, we should we should burn Jason Schreyer at the stake in terms of his career as a journalist, right? He should never be he should be canned and never work in this industry again Just like Phillip Houston if he's making this up, but we all know Jason Schreyer is not making this up We all know he has legitimate inside sources at these companies. We all know he does his homework You don't have to agree with his homework or agree with his conclusions from his homework But we all know he does his homework. He doesn't just put this stuff out here just to dramatize what's happening in the industry He's directly quoting his sources This isn't that you know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result This is what CD project red is doing They feel like they can come back crunch that they learn from every project and promise the next batch of developers that we are not going to crunch We have learned we found a way It's not going to happen and then they do it again and again and again because they don't learn Because the managers are people that grew up in the crunch culture So they don't know how to complete a project without crunching and it just continues cyclical and cyclical and over and over again It's hard to get management and control that didn't grow up in that crunch culture in the West especially But you know what happens in the East too. We always ignore Japan. It happens crunch happens in Japan, too You know why it's not talked about You know why it's not talked about Because the developers over there don't complain about it and now you might be like why don't they complain about it? It's an honor thing It's embarrassing to them to complain about an employer. I don't know if you guys know that in Japan It's considered dishonorable to complain about your employer who provides you a paycheck Even though you're earning that paycheck and you're providing them labor You can't complain about your your employer in Japan. It's just it's a cultural thing But we have confirmed reports that it happens over there and employees aren't necessarily healthy all the time This is an industry-wide problem all across the world This is not meant to just specifically target CD project right and I'm not sitting you're telling you Hey, don't buy. Don't buy, you know cyberpunk 2077, right? Don't buy the game like these people are literally Sacrificing their health to provide us a game that might be the greatest game ever made Like if anything that should almost encourage you to buy it Just to say thank you to those developers I mean apparently they even get bonus kickbacks off sales So you're actually gonna help them get bonus paycheck potential even after they quit You know be just just from buying the game So there's a benefit to them to buy it, but you're also telling CD project red that it was worth it that it was worth Almost killing people to get this game out the door this game should be delayed a Year however long it takes So long as people aren't working hundred-hour workings you want to push 50 hours you want to hit 60 Okay, that happens right we all hit 50 60 we work 10 20 hours over time it happens How many of you are working 60 hours over time? per week Not per month per week That should never happen People shouldn't get physically ill because they can't leave the fucking office. I'm sorry for swearing This is a serious thing. I don't think people quite grasp the like when I talk about these things And I get all these dislikes and stop bitching we all have a hard life and all this shit We get all these dislikes. I don't care bring on the dislikes. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend This is okay me sitting in my cozy chair here is not okay How if any of you if any of you are sitting there and you're gonna tell me that 100-hour work weeks are okay working to the point of physical illness and then probably still having to work on top of that It's okay, and they choose to live this way. No They don't want to walk away from a paycheck. They want to see their project through right? There's a certain dedication level when you start something you want to finish it But not like this. I Don't care about investors You shouldn't care about investors either this game is gonna sell like gangbusters period They could delay it six months. They could delay it a year. It's still going to sell well Whatever they have to do to avoid this kind of crunch the game supposedly went gold Right if it went gold, why are we still working our employees to the bone because the game really isn't gold It's not if it requires a day one patch to play It's not gold now if you want to say there's gonna be a day one patch or a day zero patches They call it that's going to just make the game a little bit better. It's gonna have some enhancements sure But you shouldn't need that patch to play the game But you do and if you need the patch to play the game that means the game ain't gold. It ain't ready to go Ain't ready to go as is you can't print discs and have people play the game Nope, cuz it's not ready. You know, it's not ready. You're gonna print incomplete discs and then release a day one patch That's not ready It's not gonna be ready in time by with November 19th So three week delay and you really think that three week delay estimate is accurate Can you really believe the record to delay it again? I don't know this industry needs change. It needs new management. It needs, you know, we talked about unions I don't know if unions are the answer. I I'm always kind of iffy on unions one way or the other. There's some benefits There's some pitfalls it gets a little political at times I don't want to dive too deep into it because I don't know what the answer really is beyond the fact that we Definitely need better management in this industry. We definitely need better management. I just I don't know I don't know what to do The weird thing is the weird thing is I You know mostly cover Nintendo and Nintendo in Japan in Japan specifically not talking about shows studios or anything Nintendo in Japan Seems to be like the one video game company that doesn't work there You know, they're the programmers and their artists into the floor It's it's weird, right? Like they just don't We have all the reports coming out that they're very comfortable delaying games for however long they need to just so they Don't have to force employees to work unhealthy amounts of hours It's kind of crazy. I mean you always have directors, you know The usuals that are good to put in the extra time right the sacrifice of the world They're those guys are expected to put in the extra time. They are the leaders of the project They should be leading the way of course, they're gonna put in more time than their employees do They absolutely should aging a new one should spend more time With the Zelda stuff than any of the other people on the Zelda team besides maybe the director of the new game so it to me It's a cultural thing at this point in the industry that has made this okay And the stories keep getting buried every time cyberpunk 2777 is gonna come out and the stories are gonna go away It's gonna be a fart in the wind. We're all gonna be talking about how awesome the game is and we're just gonna forget We're gonna forget Until the stories rear their head again next year and then the year after the year after The more we dismiss the stories The less pressure we put on these companies The longer this is going to continue Again, someone's gonna die someday Someone's going to die at their job programming a video game If we let this continue because it's getting worse Hundred-dollar work weeks man, that's even worse than I thought it was I thought they were just pushing 60 70 hundred hours my god, I Hope you know, I'm I'm religious. It's okay. If you're not I hope the Lord is watching over those developers, man Please bring them home safe to their families at the end of this. I don't want to see anyone die over making a video game I am Nathaniel Robeljans from the center prime. Thank you for tuning in and I'll catch you in the next video