CDPR Promises the New Witcher Project Will Have No Crunch

A brand new Witcher game that is currently in development, as announced earlier this week by CD Project Red, will be directed by Jason Slama who was a UI programmer on The Witcher 3 and is also known for his work on Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. Announcing the news on Twitter, Slama immediately commented that there'll be no crunch during the development of the new title.

Replying to a user who pointed out CD Projekt Red's previous crunch culture associated with the release of Cyberpunk 2077, the director said that it can never happen "on his watch". According to various reports, the previous studio's project, Cyberpunk 2077, experienced long periods of crunch, which forced employees to work long hours and extra days for a long time.

Since then, the Polish studio released a strategy update for the company in order to reduce stress for employees and prevent burnout. CD Projekt RED is now committed to giving employees everything they need so that employees can focus on work with a positive mindset.

Slama himself apparently also had some precedent in avoiding crunch. At the time of working on Gwent, talking to IGN, the director commented: "I achieved my ultimate goal of saying, 'Hey, look, you can make a high-quality CCG without murdering the people who work on it with whips and chains,' especially considering all the controversies that happened with crunch and everything."