Difference between revisions of "CD Projekt"

Revision as of 12:52, 18 March 2021

The CD Projekt Red Logo Image source

CD Projekt is a video game development and distribution company based in Warsaw, Poland, founded in 1994. The company began as a distributor of foreign software across Poland, but today it has become well known for its original series The Witcher created by the CD Projekt Red studio. While the company has been criticized in the past for the portrayal of women and lack of racial diversity in its games, it has most recently faced backlash due to problems relating to the release of its newest game Cyberpunk 2077.

History

Founding

CD Projekt was established in 1994 by co-founders Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński, who were high school friends. The company initially focused on importing CD-ROM software from the United States for distribution within Poland. Among their first distribution agreements were contracts with Acclaim, Blizzard, Blue Byte, Interplay, and Psygnosis. ^[1]

In 1999, the company turned toward localization with the Polish voice dubbing of Baldur’s Gate. The localization was a success and saw over 100 thousand sold copies. CD Projekt continued to work on the PC port of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance until the publisher Interplay stopped development due to financial difficulties.^[2]

CD Projekt Red

The cover of The Witcher 3 Image source

The CD Projekt Red studio was established in 2002 after the company took interest in creating original games. The company owned the code for Dark Alliance after its cancellation, which it repurposed for their first original game The Witcher. After five years of development and 20 million złoty, The Witcher was published by Atari in 2007 and received positive reviews. ^[3]

Shortly after, the studio began development on both The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and The Witcher 3. The team also began a console port of The Witcher called White Wolf, but ended up cancelling the project after financial discrepancies.^[4] Due to this, Atari demanded repayment for the console port funding, worsening the financial burden on CD Projekt. The company scrapped plans for The Witcher 3, instead using its engine to finish development of The Witcher 2.^[5] The second entry in The Witcher series took three and a half years and was released in 2011 to very positive reviews.^[6] In 2012, the studio first announced plans to develop Cyberpunk 2077.

After the success of The Witcher 2, the company found every greater success with the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015. Cyberpunk 2077 was the next major game release in 2020, preceded by several delays in release date. The initial release was met with backlash about bugs and technical issues that made console versions unplayable on older systems, as well as complaints about the finished product not meeting customer expectations.^[7] Major retailers began offering refunds to dissatisfied customers shortly after the release ^[8].

Release Issues with CyberPunk 2077

Pressure from the gaming community forced CD Projekt Red to release Cyberpunk well before it was ready to be released, with internal employees even saying that they knew the game was not ready for release1. This led to a game riddled with bugs, that at some points were unplayable. Some bugs were as minor as cars driving through walls or people disappearing2, while some were major bugs that could ruin your gameplay. For example, there was one bug that has the potential to corrupt all your save data and force you start the game from scratch. This bug comes from the fact that the save file capacity is 8 MB but if you reach this you can go over from what is in your in game inventory3. The bugs are only part of the issue with Cyberpunk 2077 though. Cyberpunk was promised as a vast open-world game with endless exploration and interactions. Many believed it would be a trail blazer in its ability to make every interaction, mission, setting, etc. unique. This was however not exactly the case. The setting of “Night City” seems to be mostly “window-dressing” where NPCs follow similar patterns with limited interactions and some areas of the game unable to be accessed unless the player is in a very specific part of a certain mission4. With the creators saying much of their focus was on optimizing the game’s performance5, it is reasonable to assume the developers may have focused too much time on fixing bugs at the detriment of creating a fully interactable world4.

Ethical Implications

Overworking

CD Projekt Red has been known to participate in crunch time, a common video game industry practice of working excessive hours and days to meet a deadline. Lead character artist Paweł Mielniczuk recalled that “For half-a-year we were working 12-hour days every day, all weekends, all the time,” and mentioned now-studio head Adam Badowski sleeping under his desk without changing clothes ^[9]. Amidst development of The Witcher: White Wolf, the studio also crunched to meet deadlines, only to have the project be cancelled. Crunch was again experienced for several months during development of The Witcher 3.^[10] Most recently, the studio broke its promise to staff that there would be no mandatory crunch for Cyberpunk 2077 following several release date delays ^[11].

Gender Discrimination In Games

Female Monsters

The company has been criticized for its portrayal of female monsters in The Witcher series. Stang notes how many monsters appear as attractive, naked women before turning into hideous monsters ^[12]. She claims there is an emphasis on luring male protagonists and using their bodies as weapons ^[13].

Portrayal of Women and Gender

The Witcher series has been criticized for its female NPC’s. The games all feature interactable female prostitutes, with the exception of one male prostitute that cannot be propositioned. The Witcher 3 sex scenes show a clothed Geralt, the main male protagonist, and the women are naked ^[14].

Cyberpunk 2077 also received criticism for its oversexualized imagery throughout the game. An advertisement seen on ingame signs depicting a feminine model with an erection visible under a leotard was met with backlash due to its dubious portrayal of a seemingly transgender individual ^[15].

Underrepresentation of Racial Diversity

The Witcher 3 has received criticism for its lack of racial diversity. Before the addition of the Hearts of Stone DLC, the game did not have any people of color. Some of the developers defended this by stating they were occupied with other issues ^[16].

References

1. ↑ History of CD Projekt Capital Group. (2020, October 26). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/capital-group/history/
2. ↑ Peel, J. (2020, May 19). How CD Projekt Red found the road that led to The Witcher. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-witcher/making-of
3. ↑ Purchese, R. (2019, May 15). Seeing red: The story of CD Projekt. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20200108032538/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-06-seeing-red-the-story-of-cd-projekt
4. ↑ Martin, M. (2009, April 29). Financial dispute puts The Witcher games on hold. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/financial-dispute-puts-the-witcher-games-on-hold
5. ↑ Purchese, R. (2019, May 15). Seeing red: The story of CD Projekt. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20200108032538/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-06-seeing-red-the-story-of-cd-projekt
6. ↑ The Witcher Metacritic. (2007, October 30). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20151105021936/http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-witcher
7. ↑ Fahey, R. (2020, December 11). Cyberpunk 2077 launches with some real dystopia in tow: Opinion. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-12-11-cyberpunk-2077-launches-with-some-real-dystopia-in-tow-opinion
8. ↑ Andronico, M. (2020, December 18). Cyberpunk 2077 is a mess - how to get your refund (and what to Play instead) - CNN UNDERSCORED. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/17/cnn-underscored/how-to-get-a-refund-on-cyberpunk-2077/index.html
9. ↑ Purchese, R. (2019, May 15). Seeing red: The story of CD Projekt. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20200108032538/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-06-seeing-red-the-story-of-cd-projekt
10. ↑ Crossley, R. (2014, October 09). Witcher 3 studio responds to Crunch Accusations. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.gamespot.com/articles/witcher-3-studio-responds-to-crunch-accusations/1100-6422841/
11. ↑ Plunkett, L. (2020, September 30). Report: Cyberpunk 2077 developers will be crunching, despite promises they wouldn't. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://kotaku.com/report-cyberpunk-2077-developers-will-be-crunching-de-1845220746
12. ↑ Stang, S. (2018). Shrieking, Biting, and Licking The Monstrous-Feminine and Abject Female Monsters in Video Games. Press Start, 4(2). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from http://press-start.gla.ac.uk/index.php/press-start/article/view/85
13. ↑ Stang, S. (2018). Shrieking, Biting, and Licking The Monstrous-Feminine and Abject Female Monsters in Video Games. Press Start, 4(2). Retrieved March 12, 2021, from http://press-start.gla.ac.uk/index.php/press-start/article/view/85
14. ↑ Lukomski, J. L.. (2019). CREATING AND ANALYZING VALUES, ETHICS, AND INCLUSIVE DESIGN IN ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING FOR VIDEO GAMES (Version 1). Purdue University Graduate School. https://doi.org/10.25394/PGS.8038937.v1 ([])
15. ↑ Alexandra, H. (2019, June 13). Cyberpunk 2077 artist says controversial in-game image is commentary on corporations. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://kotaku.com/cyberpunk-2077-artist-says-controversial-in-game-image-1835459949
16. ↑ Lukomski, J. L.. (2019). CREATING AND ANALYZING VALUES, ETHICS, AND INCLUSIVE DESIGN IN ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING FOR VIDEO GAMES (Version 1). Purdue University Graduate School. https://doi.org/10.25394/PGS.8038937.v1 ([])