CD Projekt announces mass layoffs."Agile methodology" in practice, i.e. "we have no tasks for you"
100 people will be cut, which is about 9 percent of the staff at the CD Projekt Red studio. Those employed in production, publishing and back office teams will lose their jobs. This is another example that the crisis in the IT industry also affects the local Polish market.
The reduction is related to the ongoing transformation, which aims to "optimize the organization of work", according to the company.
"The change of approach and the pursuit of building more effective project teams is a continuation of the ongoing transformation processes, which the company considers to be crucial for creating high-quality games, released on time and created without burdensome and excessive overtime," the release reads.
The company informs that it "wants not only to hire the best people, but also to properly form teams", because in this way it will be able to "meet its own requirements and ambitions to create the best role-playing games".
By "properly" the company means building teams with the needs of a given project in mind; teams that will be characterized by "greater agility and efficiency".
CD Projekt is facing a slight stagnation in production.
The company estimates that the costs of layoffs, including severance pay, will cost approx. PLN 4.5 million. And it will burden the group's financial result in the third quarter of 2023. Completion of the process is planned for the first quarter of 2024.
Time to upgrade
The case has already been commented on by Adam Kiciński, president of CD Projekt.
– Those of you who are familiar with our strategy know how much is going on at CD Projekt Red. Polaris (The Witcher), Orion (Cyberpunk) or Hadar (new franchise) are just some of the projects that will expand our studio's portfolio in the future. An important part of our strategy is the ongoing transformation process leading to deep, internal changes, which we consider the key to creating high-quality games without delays and crunch. After the implementation of the Agile methodology and changes in the philosophy of project management, the time has come to improve the way our teams are organized - explained Adam Kiciński.
Kiciński also admitted that there are ... too many employees in the company.
- We work with talented people for whom, taking into account the current and expected needs related to projects, we will not have new tasks next year - emphasized the president of CD Projekt.
Red alerts at the Polish giant
The situation in the IT industry is still very good, but the wave of redundancies has reached the Vistula River. NetGuru recently laid off over 150 employees. Just Join IT also informed about the reduction.
Smaller or larger reductions affect almost all companies in the new technology industry present on the market.
It is worth noting that these are not the first redundancies at CD Projekt Red. Earlier layoffs were the result of the fiasco associated with the premiere of the game "Cyberpunk 2077". Then the board admitted to a whole litany of mistakes and oversights.
