There were actually rumours a while back saying that Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed because it ran poorly on the last generation consoles.

>Niespielak speaks about the situation on a popular Polish podcast, which has since been translated into English. He basically says that CD Projekt Red was running into real trouble when it came to getting Cyberpunk 2077 to perform on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One -- the latter especially. It's unclear whether Niespielak is referring to just the base systems or the Pro and X as well.

CD Projekt Red even responded to the rumours, basically saying that there wasn't really a particular reason for the delay. Guess that may have been true, considering how many bugs the game still had when it released.

>"No hidden agendas, just working on making the game better."

That part may have not really been that truthful considering what we now know about the console versions and how they went out of their way to not show us any footage before release.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/01/dev_responds_to_rumo...

And possibly lose their job during a massive pandemic? It’s hard to be a whistleblower.

It's not always 100% correct, but when asking why someone didn't do the "right" thing you can usually answer with "their material conditions."

Retaliation against whistleblowers is illegal.

Sure, in theory. In practice they would have let you go for performance reasons, which are only supported by this game being pulled from the store.

Of course you can fight it, but while you do you still have to pay your bills and pay a lawyer, all with no income and no guarantee that it will ever make a difference, let alone when it would be resolved.

EDIT: And all that presumed that the whistleblower protections would actually apply in this case. If it were something clearly illegal you’d have a better case, but really here all you’ve got is possibly fraud and a pretty mild version at that. Proving fraud is tough...

Typical developer is not allowed by contract to say anything related to the product externally. They are just respecting a contract they signed.

That's basically all of the game industry - from testers to PR to HR to art.

When I onboarded at a global AAA game dev place in Japan, I got a separate sheet detailing my rights as a whistleblower - it's lucky to have these, but I doubt anyone would risk their standing/future in the industry because of something like this, especially during a pandemic.

Even in places where that is true, that typically only applies to employees "blowing the whistle" on illegal behavior, like violations of labor codes or hazardous conditions. It's not a blanket immunity for anyone with something negative to say about their employer.

Not in Poland.

Are you actually Polish? Or are you just assuming because it is not America they dont "enjoy" America Freedom(C)?

European. I researched whether or not Poland has legal protection for whistleblowers and it turns out they don't.

I hardly doubt that many legislations will go out of their way to specifically protect whistleblowers, but what do I know about laws?

I'm not sure if this is being sarcastic or not. Doesn't America have some of the weakest employee protection in the developed world (because, ironically, freedom)?

What's in it for the devs to blow the whistle here? It's not like a matter of public safety.

> Yet they said nothing.

Why would anyone take the risk to go publicly against management?

Interesting that probabilities of a mishap like this has at best marginally reduced but the threshold for triggering corrective actions seems to be becoming much higher over past couple decades or so

They did, just not publicly. That's why there were so many delays, the developers or managers kept saying "hey we're not going to make this release date, we need more time".