The Poison That Damaged Cyberpunk is an Important Lesson for Management
After the launch of The Witcher 3 game, CD Projekt Red a small game developer from Poland going up leaf became one of the most admired game developers. Unfortunately, four years later, CD Projekt fell and became a victim because of the damage to their newest game, Cyberpunk 2077. What was the cause? This time not because of arrogance or stagnant innovation. There is another type of poison that damages CD Projekt from within. The poison that has ruined many companies and maybe without us knowing it we drink it too. What is that poison? and what is the lesson? Let's find out the Poison That Damages Cyberpunk which will be an Important Lesson for Management.
It starts with seeing how CD Projekt has grown from a small, insignificant company to a respected game development company. Then, we'll explore what poison has made Cyberpunk 2077, the most anticipated CD Projekt game of the decade, fall apart? And finally we will discuss three important lessons that we can take from this ironic story.
The Origin of CD Projekt
CD Projekt was founded by Marcin Iwinski and Michal Kicinski in 1994 in Warsaw, Poland. CD Projekt ran a business selling game CDs in the early days of its establishment. In 2002 CD Projekt formed a game development studio called "CD PROJEKT RED" or CDPR. Through various challenges, especially because the founders of CDPR have no experience in making games. Created in 2007 their first game called "The Witcher" based on the novel by Andrzej Sapkowski.
The game received a satisfactory response from the market. And in 2012 the CDPR released The Witcher 2 - Assassins of Kings which received a very positive response with sales of 1.7 million copies. This success gave CDPR confidence in making their best game, the next series from the Witcher. They worked all out in the process of developing this game. Starting from building a new game engine to accommodate the open-world design to polishing the graphics and building a deep storyline. After three and a half years of development, with a full year of crazy overtime (Crunch). In 2015, CDPR launched The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt which was very successful in the market. The Witcher 3 sold 28 million copies worldwide and earned 250 Awards for its fantastic game quality. To describe how good the game is. You might be able to compare the cool game from Naughty Dog whose title is "The Last of Us" and the game from Rockstar - "Red Dead Redemption 2" which is also very cool with this game The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt.
CDPR Going Up Leaf
The success of The Witcher 3 catapulted CDPR's name as one of the world's best game developers. Aligned with game developers who have already mastered the universe of game play, such as Naughty Dog and Rockstar. CDPR became a company of pride for Polish citizens even when President Barack Obama visited Poland. Prime Minister of Poland - Donald Tusk gave Obama the game The Witcher as a keepsake. The Witcher continues to grow into a franchise that adds to the coffers of CDPR's profits ranging from games, novels, card games to TV series produced and aired by Netflix. In a short time, CDPR became The Most Valuable Video Game Company in Europe in 2020, even beating the first French game developer, Ubisoft. CDPR is also known as a game developer who is friendly to gamers. Unlike other game developers, Electronic Arts, for example, is hated by gamers for extorting the contents of gamers' wallets with paid downloadable content and various microtransactions that allow gamers to be paid to win. The CDPR business model is simple. You buy the game and you get everything. "no hidden fees".
CDPR's High Ambition
The success of The Witcher 3 boosted CDPR's ambitions to sky-high. CDPR wants to develop the most sophisticated and most complex game entitled "Cyberpunk 2077", based on the table top game by Michael Allen. The game concept and design of Cyberpunk 2077 makes the greatness of Witcher 3 so it doesn't seem like anything. In January 2013, CDPR released the first Cyberpunk Teaser. This teaser immediately sparked excitement among fans and gamers. Investors also don't want to be late, because the simple logic is that The Witcher 3 can make big profits, let alone this game.
At the 2018 E3 event, CDPR invited the media and game reviews to see the Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay demo. The 45-minute demo immediately caused a stir. There had never been a game quite like this, which they saw in that demo. The excitement of the fans exploded and sparked hype over the most phenomenal game of all time. Ironically, they didn't know that the gameplay demo they saw was fake. Due to the reality, until then the Cyberpunk 2077 game developers had not succeeded in creating the game as shown during the demo.
The falsehood reflects something that goes on behind the scenes of the frenetic Cyberpunk 2077. The falsehood that rolls into a snowball, then tarnishes the good name of CDPR. What is really going on behind the scenes?
Cyberpunk 2077 Game Developer by CDPR
Cyberpunk 2077's game design is very different from Witcher 3. Due to the setting in a different world, The Witcher's assets cannot be reused in Cyberpunk. In addition, Witcher is a third-person game, while Cyberpunk is a first-person game. Therefore, the development team was forced to revise or even create a new game engine. Well, this condition makes the game design team have to catch up with the game engine development team. It's like "a train running along with a railroad that is being built."
So, in the midst of all the chaos, Adam Badowski - Head of Studio CDPR took over the role of the Leader Cyberpark project. He asked the development team to make major revisions to the game they were making. He wanted the game to be bigger, more sophisticated with new, more complex features. The senior development team members disagreed, as that would result in a lot of rework.
Adam was supported by other top executives, who remained adamant about his desire, eventually many senior developers left CDPR and those who remained were increasingly worried about the team's ability to complete the increasingly complex game. As if the development team's workload wasn't heavy enough, CDBR's top executives demanded that the team make cyberpunk games playable in all formats; on PC, current game console, and next gen console. The goal is to satisfy the investors and they will be able to sell more games to the market.
Finally, the developers were forced to work overtime (Crunch). Developers have to work around the clock, 16 hours a day six to seven days each week. In fact, some developers say that they don't come home for months. The physical and mental condition of the team dropped, as a result the project was not completed and they actually made a lot of mistakes. The situation is made worse by the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Require all team members to work from home. They lose access to key technology in the office. They also have difficulty in coordinating work, so communication is hampered and problems increase.
Building a Positive Impression for the Market
At the same time, CDPR's top executives are focused on making a positive impression on the market. They continue to try to maintain the good name of the CDPR, which is still in its infancy. It must also continue to satisfy the expectations of fans and investors in games that have become hype in the gaming world. That's why, they asked the development team to allocate months to create a Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay demo which is actually a fake. They want to continue to inflame the hype, so they have to keep expectations of Cyberpunk 2077 positive in the eyes of the market. Why? so that the stock price of CDPR continues to rise. Well, CDPR is increasing its marketing efforts for the game even though it's not ready yet.
The climax was at the 2019 E3 event, CDPR held a stunning Cyberpunk 2077 promotional event by presenting Keanu Reeves live on stage. That day, Keanu, who plays one of the key characters in the Cyberpunk game, officially announced the game's release date on April 16, 2020. All the fans who watched screamed with joy, while the development team who heard it also screamed in surprise while dumbfounded. Apparently, the marketing team did not coordinate in advance regarding the determination of the game's release date.
According to the development team, the most realistic release date is not 2020 but 2022. CDPR costs 209 million US dollars for marketing, almost double the game development cost of 121 million US dollars. The developers complain, if those resources were used for game development, then a lot of problems could be avoided and they would really have the best game of all time. But whenever the top executive was faced with a development problem, his response was: “Everything will go according to plan. The proof was when we made The Witcher 3. So everything will be fine."
Even so, the aggressive CDPR Marketing strategy seemed to be working, Cyberpunk 2077 being the most anticipated game at the time with more than 100 awards at E3 2018 even before the game was released. Cyberpunk received 8 million pre-orders which, according to CDPR, could already cover the manufacturing and marketing costs of Cyberpunk itself.
Cyberpunk 2077 Launch by CDPR
Because it wasn't ready to release the game yet, Cyberpunk finally pushed it back to September 17, then pushed it back to November 19 until it was finally released on December 10, 2020. CDPR also forced to release the game on PS4 and Xbox One, in addition to PC and Google Stadia. The reason for the coercion is because CDPR doesn't want to miss the year-end holiday season. In addition, a longer delay will have a negative impact on stock prices. The much-anticipated launch event of Cyberpunk 2077 turned into a disaster for CDPR. The number of bugs in the game, especially on the PS4 and Xbox One versions, makes the game almost unplayable according to fans. The New York Times called the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 one of the most striking disasters in the history of the gaming industry.
CD project Red failed to live up to expectations to anticipate the biggest game release issues of the year. Some commentators even say that the CDPR has fallen from Grace. Sony even pulled Cyberpunk from the PlayStation Store and offered its customers a refund. Microsoft still had time to sell Cyberpunk 2077 in the Microsoft Store but with a warning for potential buyers. Then, Microsoft also followed Sony to offer refunds for customers who were disappointed with the game. The CD project was sued by investors for its lack of transparency and poor management.
CDPR shares plunged from hot stocks to the worst in Europe. However, that doesn't mean Cyberpunk is a commercial failure. CDPR announced that it had sold 13 million units worth US$700 million in its first 10 days of sales. This has significantly boosted the value of CDPR's shares, but its reputation has already been damaged. CDPR must work hard to improve its image. The good news is that CDPR management realized their mistake.
In an official video released by the company, Marchin Iwinski Co-Founder of CDPR apologizes. He defends the talented developers who have worked hard to create Cyberpunk games and takes full responsibility for all the problems that occur in the development and launch of Cyberpunk. Hopefully his humility to admit his mistakes will be the starting point for the revival of the CDPR.
Lessons Learned from Cyberpunk 2077
There are three important lessons from the Cyberpunk 2077 story, see below:
1. The Need to Impress is poisonous
The need to impress others is poison. The constant praise of CDPR management for the success of The Witcher 3 fueled the need to continue to impress fans, reviewers and investors. The higher the praise, the higher the need to build more impressions or even when they don't match reality. As an illustration, when someone suddenly succeeds in his business, he suddenly becomes rich. People will praise and glorify him. He became a symbol of success, so the dream of many people.
Well, he will fight as hard as he can to keep the image that has been formed. Apart from enjoying it, he also doesn't want to disappoint those who have glorified him. Even then, when his business falls and is filled with problems he still has to maintain his image. He will be in debt from any source to maintain his lifestyle in order to continue to be seen as a successful rich man. Until one day, the lie was exposed. "Even the house of cards he has made will collapse."
2. Don't Bet on Luck. Work on it
Don't bet on luck. Work hard. There's nothing wrong with high ambition. What is wrong is to hang high ambitions on past success. Because, the success formula that led you to succeed today cannot lead you to succeed at a higher level. You have to go the extra mile, you have to reinvent yourself and your team and it's not easy. But, that's the price to pay to play at a higher level or level.
3. Top-Down Connection is Crucial
The top-down relationship is crucial. Good organization is like one body, there are eyes that look ahead and a brain that commands the hands and feet to move forward. When the hand tells the brain when the embers are touched and the foot when the thorn is stepped on, the brain must respond quickly. Throw the embers away, change course. Mostly, top management who is not connected with the operational team in the field. So, everything falls apart and becomes a victim, where the lowest position has to sacrifice the most. Those are the three lessons to be found. Time, you find another lesson from this Cyberpunk 2077 story?
Reference: https://youtu.be/Bql0sST0MsQ
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