 Before I get into this video, I want to remind you of a couple of giveaways we have going on. One is for a Nintendo Switch, an Xbox Series X, or a PlayStation 5. The other is for two copies of Pikmin 3 Deluxe. You can like this video, comment on this video, subscribe to the channel, hit that bell icon. Go down to that description and find out exactly how to enter these giveaways, and I wish all of you luck. Alright, we got a big one here for you guys. So Cyberpunk 2077 is slated to come out rather soon, and it's one of the most hotly anticipated games of all time, especially from CD Projekt Red. You know, they've made great strides with the Witcher series. Witcher 3 on Switch is a beautiful, beautiful port, crosses a PC, amazing stuff, and there's some hope that potentially Cyberpunk could come to a Switch or a Switch Pro at some point a year from now. However, Cyberpunk and CD Projekt Red, the team behind it, is doing something they promised they would not do. They promised they wouldn't do this. I'm getting this off Jason Schreyer on Twitter, so let's just head over there because he's been covering this kind of topic for a long time. Remember, he used to work at Kotaku and all that. He has stated, last year, the bosses of CD Projekt Red approached me for an interview. They wanted to announce that for Cyberpunk 2077, they would be avoiding mandatory crunch. This week, they sent an email to the staff announcing studio-wide mandatory crunch, and then it links to a Bloomberg article that talks about how there's going to be six days a week mandatory crunch. A lot of guys have already been working overtime, and others have been crunching apparently for quite some time, but now it's mandatory. I guess it was considered voluntary before. Now it's mandatory to get this game out on time. Many developers on Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most hotly anticipated games of 2020, have been working overtime hours for months, if not years now. But this call for six-day work beats mandatory crunch directly renegs on CD Projekt Red's bosses said last year. Now if we scroll up, this story just keeps going. Lots of angry gamers to block. I will ignore that. We'll go straight to this one. So this person says, sorry, but that CD Projekt Red story is much to do about nothing. Is it ideal? No, but the team is essentially being asked for seven extra days of paid work. The better the game is, the better off they all do. Not everything is a crisis. There's breathless calamity seeking is lame. And then Jason said, this is quite the take. It's also spreading misinformation to a wide audience. As I reported today, this week's email is the first instance of mandatory crunch. He quotes that because people have been crunching. Some of the CD Projekt Reds said they've been crunching for months. Others have been working overtime in fits and starts for years. Crunch is too complicated and nuanced of a subject for a Twitter soundbite. It comes in many different forms and hits people in many different ways. It's pressure. It's culture. It's people giving you dirty looks because you're not being a team player and by going home to your kids. Yeah. Yeah, guys. What we have to understand is crunch is not a good thing. Crunch has been going on in this industry for a long, long time, maybe dating all the way back to PlayStation 2, Xbox One days, maybe more so prevalent in the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii days. Crunch at Western Studios is not good. I think at this point it's well defined where crunch is. For those who are wondering what the hell crunch even is, it's just working extreme hours on a game. And it could be anything. It doesn't have to be a game. It could be any project. And there are obviously certain employees that are workaholics, you know, like Sakurai for Nintendo. He crunches like crazy, but he basically always crunches. He takes his work home with him. He is a workaholic, but we're not talking about workaholics. We're talking about people that are being enforced or heavily suggested or heavily hinted at needing to work extra time to that takes him away from that healthy home work life balance. And what makes it worse? What makes it worse is that CD Projekt Red promised last year in 2019 that they would not do this. They would not have crunch for this game. But yeah, here we are. The game's not done yet. It hasn't gone gold and crunch is being implemented. Crunch has been happening. Crunch was apparently happening, even as they promised there wouldn't be crunch. This game, if it's not ready, should not be out now. I know this is going to upset some people that have been really looking forward to the game, but crunch isn't worth it, guys. We're talking to what people's lives here. OK, marriages are destroyed over crunch. Children get to just go years without seeing their dad or their mom if they're the programmer, because they're too busy working. I grew up in a home where my dad was gone because he was working 80 hour work weeks. Now he wasn't crunching for, you know, a video game company. He was crunching for a different type of company. But the point is I basically grew up without a dad for a majority of my childhood because he was busy working 80 hour weeks, mandatory 80 hour weeks. That's crunch. It's completely unhealthy, completely unhealthy. You're not eating home cooked meals. Guarantee most of the people that do crunch aren't eating home cooked meals. They're eating out all the time. So it's bad for your physical health. You're sitting down a lot when you're programming and at work. So you're not getting enough physical activity either. So it's physically draining. And then you have the mental aspect of it all. You're mentally beating your head against the board to try to get something done that doesn't ever seem to have an end to it. And even after the game comes out, okay, they get a slight reprieve as they begin working on another game. And then they end up back in the cycle again and end up crunching again. And then eventually wear out after they've already lost their wives or their husbands or, you know, their children have, you know, you don't get those years back with your kids. It's bad. It is not good. And it's just worse because CD Projekt Red promised they wouldn't do this. They promised publicly we will not do this. And here we are. It's 2020 and they're doing it instead of delaying the game again, which I know that would be disappointing, but you know what? Delay the game six months, delay the year. If the game isn't ready, if you're at the point, you need people to crunch, push the game, push the game. I feel really bad for the people working at CD Projekt Red. The ones in particular that feel forced into this or, well, now it is forced, but feel like they don't have a choice. The ones that are workaholics and want to dedicate their entire life to work and don't have a life outside of work, fine. I'm sure you guys are fine with this. It doesn't bother you. But you know what? Have some respect for your fellow employees that do have a life, do have children, do have a want, a work life balance that is a healthy alternative because right now, this isn't healthy. And it's not just CD Projekt Red. CD Projekt Red. Activision does this with Call of Duty. EA does this with their sports games. It is very, very common across the industry in the West, especially, not so much in the East. Japan's a lot better about it. But in the West, it is especially common for crunch to happen. And because it's so common, people think, well, that's just the way it is. You want to be a video game developer. You got to accept crunch, but it shouldn't be that way. And this is one of the reasons why some people feel like there should be a labor union. I don't want to get in the whole union versus not union thing. It's kind of a controversial topic because unions have good sides and bad sides to them. And it depends on what side of the fence you're going to fall on, if you think that's a good idea. But something needs to happen. Something needs to happen where if a company comes out and promises there won't be crunch, right? So if your boss, the head honcho of your company, comes out and publicly states, we are not going to implement crunch with our employees, they should be immediately forced to take that statement and put it down in writing and sign it and send it to all the employees to sign as well. So that way, when it gets to the point where they're going to totally go against it and force you to crunch, you can bring up a document and be like, no, you can't and you can't fire me. And it's going to take all the employees banding together or it's not going to matter. You know, if half the employees agree to crunch, it's not going to matter. And I'm not saying, boy, you got the game. Like, these employees that are crunching don't want you to boycott the game. They're pouring their heart and soul in the Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk 2077 is likely going to be game of the year. Might be one of the games of the decade. It has the potential to be one of the greatest games ever made. If they nail it, it has the potential to be one of the greatest games ever made. So I'm not saying don't buy the game because then you're almost also punishing the people that did crunch to make this excellent game. But man, something needs to be done. There needs to be some sort of legal repercussion for going against a public statement that you wouldn't crunch. And CD Projekt Red, you are a very highly respected studio. Most people's favorite development studio out there, to be honest. You guys need to hold yourselves to a higher standard. You're not in financial trouble, so delay the game. I could understand if you are under financial strife and you're about to go bankrupt. I get that. At that point, you're just trying to survive. If you got to force crunch to survive, I get it. But you're not in financial strife. The Netflix series. Granted, I know most of that goes to the actual book writer in this family, but still. The Witcher 3 on Switch. The Witcher 3 on all platforms. You are just fine financially. You should have just delayed the game. Three months, four months, six months, whatever you needed to do to prevent crunch. But you didn't. You decided that crunch was the only way to go to make this game ultimately one of the greatest games of all time. And that's sad. I am with Henry Robledance from The Tender Prime. I wish there was an easy solution to this. But hey, the game's going to be great. I just hope all the people that are crunching right now are not going to have any major long-term effects from this. Both mentally, physically, emotionally. Hope they don't lose family members over it. Because most of the people can't afford to just quit and not have that income, especially if they have family. So all right, folks. I'll catch you in the next video.