Bloomberg has revealed that CD Projekt RED’s board members are set to receive $4-6 million in bonuses despite Cyberpunk 2077‘s launch disaster. Meanwhile, employees claim that their bonuses ranged from a comparatively meager $5,000 to $20,000.
Speaking anonymously to journalist Jason Schreier, the employees expressed their frustration over the bonuses especially because they had asked to delay Cyberpunk 2077, which the management refused to do. Had the game been delayed and launched in a better state, the employees would have made out well. Instead, they have been handed peanuts while CDPR’s board members took home a significant amount of money.
A CDPR spokesperson claimed on the contrary that the average employee bonus was $34,000. Interestingly, Schreier was officially told that the studio allocated $29.8 million in bonuses for 865 employees. Meanwhile, a whopping $28 million was reserved for just five board members.
One employee told Schreier that following Bloomberg’s multiple reports as well as internal complaints, CDPR finally agreed to reevaluate developer salaries. As a result, some of the lowest-paid staff including QA team members have received a wage increase.
When asked during an earnings call if it was appropriate for CDPR’s management to receive such hefty bonuses, co-CEO Adam Kiciński (who is receiving a bonus of $6.3 million) said, “We earned this money and the company earned this money, of course, but more net profits, more bonuses. So well, we have results, we get bonuses, and that’s the contract we have.”
Cyberpunk 2077 managed to sell nearly 14 million copies despite its launch woes. The game remains suspended from the PlayStation Store.
[Source: Bloomberg]