Key Takeaways
- CD Projekt CEO refutes claims of company troubles due to diversity policies.
- Talent retention is very high for the company right now.
- Conspiracy theories are being spread by content creations such as Endymion.
CD Projekt is in a weird spot. The Polish gaming giant enjoyed a DLC launch that practically made Cyberpunk 2077 a new game, while increasing player satisfaction along with other recent wins.
At the same time, content creators like Endymion have attempted to convince the industry that the company is having a horrible time as the gaming industry fights to maintain stability. Does this seem strange to you? If so, you may have a friend in CDPR’s joint CEO Michał Nowakowski.”
Nowakowski was compelled to reply to a post by YouTuber Endymion, one of many who has engaged in “anti-woke” or “anti-DEI” conspiracies that blame diversity for most problems surrounding modern game releases.
Anti-Woke 2077
Endymion writes that “places like CD PROJEKT RED […] are in dire trouble”, and company policies that encourage equality and diversity are at the center of this.
The company’s joint CEO addressed some of the claims made in the Endymion video, but the overall message is clear: no, CDPR is not in dire trouble.
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The first item on the list of rebuttals is the claim that the company is bleeding talent over diversity policies. According to Nowakowski, CDPR currently has “the lowest rotation of people in recent years.”
CDPR did experience an exodus of talent in the recent past, but most sources agree that this was due to the extreme crunch conditions the studio worked under around the Cyberpunk 2077 release period (a problem CDPR appears to have addressed following widespread industry criticism).
Endymion alleged that CDPR was engaging in “diversity hires,” a term typically used to discredit talent from minorities by saying they are only present to meet a quota.
“We hire based on merit and talent alone,” said Nowakowski in a social media post, “just as we make games driven by artistic vision alone.”
In a confusing turn of events, Nowakowski also had to debunk conspiracies over the choice to develop games in the Unreal 5 Engine instead of in-house solutions, a path that has become an industry standard as of late.
Why did we choose UE? Because it enables us to work on our games more efficiently and we remain cutting-edge tech-wise.
-Michał Nowakowski, CD Projekt joint CEO
The Polish boss reminded the YouTuber that The Witcher 3 director had indeed left the company, but this had happened over two years ago, on circumstances unrelated to diversity policies.
Phantom Enemy
Attacks on gaming studios over “woke” or “DEI” have intensified recently. Earlier this week, the newly-released Silent Hill 2 remake had to fight Wikipedia vandals who attacked the game for similarly vague reasons.
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Disgruntled gamers performed an organized guerrilla attack on the page against exhausted Wiki editors.
Divisive discourse is prevalent in modern politics, but it makes for exhausting situations when it crosses over into entertainment.
Many other game developers before Nowakowski have spoken about frustrations defending their games from conspiracists.
While the online fights go on, the gaming industry continues to generate more and more money from sales, surpassing movies, television, and music combined. So much for dire trouble.
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