As reported in Bloomberg, the executives of the Polish studio had sent a staff email on Friday that said that everyone will receive full bonus payouts no matter how well Cyberpunk 2077 is reviewed. “We initially had a bonus system that was focused on the game’s ratings and the release date, but after consideration, we believe that measure is simply not fair under the circumstances,” wrote studio head and Cyberpunk’s game director Adam Badowski in the email sent to staff. “We underestimated the lengths and complexity involved to make this a reality, and still you did everything you could to deliver an ambitious, special game.” The original threshold for full bonus payout was apparently a score of at least 90 on Metacritic. The PC version currently sits at exactly that score, but it looks set to have worse review scores on console. According to the report, the original bonus system in place at CD Projekt Red was based on tokens featuring the studio’s red bird logo, which would be given out by team leaders to the most deserving team members. Even then, these tokens would have only been transferred into bonuses if the game met the criteria of critical acclaim and a timely release. The report, written by Jason Schreier, follows on from this to say that this bonus system implicitly encouraged staff to work longer hours. Following the game’s delay from its already delayed September release, the studio went into mandatory crunch with six-day working weeks. Even with Cyberpunk finally released, staff are continuing to work hard to quash all the reported bugs and glitches in the game. The latest patch has at least fixed an issue where certain images could trigger seizures for people suffering from epilepsy. Players just beginning their journey in Night City, here’s a guide to which life path you should choose for V in Cyberpunk 20777. If you’d rather give your money to other Cyberpunk projects from marginalised creators, there’s an alternative Cyberpunk indie bundle on sale at itch.io right now, which also doesn’t shy away from calling out CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077’s controversies.
