Phantom Liberty Director Insists CD Projekt Has Moved Away From Crunch

CD Projekt has moved away from crunch according to one of its own developers, director of Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion Gabe Amatangelo.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Amatangelo said CD Projekt has lived up to its promise not to force employees to crunch — meaning to work long hours and extra days in order to finish a game on time — after it was heavily criticised for doing so for the base Cyberpunk 2077.

“Fortunately, it’s a very healthy work-life balance right now,” Amatangelo said, something that was backed up by “lower-level staff members” speaking to Bloomberg.

Amatangelo is also set to direct the full sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, codenamed Orion, and the lack of crunching for Phantom Liberty bodes well for the developers who’ll be working on it. Only time will tell whether CD Projekt lives up to its promise in the long term, however, as it hasn’t released a major game since these issues occurred for Cyberpunk 2077.

Directors at the studio appear to be forming a united front against crunch, as alongside Amatangelo’s comment here, director of The Witcher 4 (for lack of an official name) Jason Slama has also promised there won’t be crunching within his team.

That being said, the studio announced five new games last October and will therefore be under unprecedented pressures over the coming years. The games aren’t being developed under one roof at least, as one is being made by The Molasses Flood (though not without issue), The Witcher Remake is being made at Fool’s Theory, and Orion is being developed at CD Projekt Red’s new North America studio.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.