CD Projekt Red’s vice president of public relations, Michal Platkov-Gilewski, defended the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, saying that it was “much better than the hype.”
The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox Series X|S has been a difficult road for developer CD Projekt Red, especially due to the game’s performance and staff pressure on Xbox One and PS4. Michał Platkow-Gilewski, now CD Projekt Red’s vice president of public relations, spoke out about the company’s restructuring while defending the launch of Cyberpunk 2077.
CD Projekt Red went “really fast from hero to zero”.
talk to GamesIndustry.bizPlatkow-Gilewski talked about how it felt to work for CD Projekt before Cyberpunk 2077’s launch. “
Platkow-Gilewski says one of his biggest disappointments was learning that CD Projekt needed to “fix our relationship” because they “disappointed their core fans.” In summary, it led to many changes within the company, starting with a review of the ‘development pipeline’, ‘new decisions about how we work’, and a review of ‘organizational structure’.
The negative atmosphere surrounding CD Projekt after the launch of Cyberpunk, especially its crunch culture reputation, forced the company to rethink the way it works. ” [the Cyberpunk situation] “When Platkow Gillewski first joined CD Projekt, there were 120 people, and he joined a marketing team of six. Today, the company employs over 1,000 people. We have a marketing department of almost 100 people.” Cyberpunk took a lot of time to come to fruition, and we grew. We had to rethink how we operate in larger groups and make sure everyone listens to each other,” said Platkow Gilewski.
“The biggest thing was to stand up and say, ‘We have to do it.'” Yes, we were expecting a different Cyberpunk launch, but now we have another one in front of us. For me, the head of communications, we want to rebuild our connection with gamers, because we’ve had people following us for years. was disappointed. That’s the biggest thing for me. We have to make games for them.”
However, despite its launch setbacks, Platkow-Gilewski maintains that Cberpunk 2077 isn’t as bad as it sounds. “In fact, I believe Cyberpunk was much better than it was when it first came out. Even the first reviews were positive,” Platkow-Gilewski said. “Then it became cool that we didn’t like it. We knew the game was great, yes we could improve it, yes it would take time and we would have to rebuild some things. “
The whole interview is great, and I highly recommend checking it out in full. For now, though, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the current state of Cyberpunk 2077, and if you’re looking forward to The Phantom’s Liberty in September. Please let us know by leaving a comment below.
