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Cyberpunk 2077 Death Threats Rally Industry Around CD Projekt Red Devs
Key members of the video game community have been turning out to show support for the developers of Cyberpunk 2077, who have been getting some serious hate mail for the game's recent delay. Despite constant promises to the contrary, CD Projekt Red announced yesterday that the game would be delayed one last time before it released, now on December 10th instead of its original November date.
Fans were understandably upset. After all, only a day before the delay announcement, CD Projekt Red gave one fan on Twitter "full confirmation" that the game would not be delayed any further. A lot of gamers took to social media to vent their frustrations over the studio going back on its word. For the most part, the reactions were rather tame; fans sent a lot of harmless memes ribbing the developer for this last stumble, and even CD Projekt itself got in on the fun, lampooning itself for its own public proclamations of a release date it could no longer live up to.
But not everyone responded to the delay with such good humor. Not long after the delay, CD Projekt Red's senior game designer Andrzej Zawadzki revealed that members of the development team were receiving death threats because of the delay. Earlier today, Zawadzki shared a few of those threats on Twitter; what he called "the mildest messages some of us got" include threats of tracking the developers to their home and burning them alive unless they release the game immediately. Major industry figures have come out to react to these dreadful messages and condemn the ones who sent them. Legendary game director Cory Barlog, known for his work on God Of War, remarked very vehemently on the threats, stating that "AS A COMMUNITY, WE MUST BE BETTER." Seamus Blackley, designer of the original Xbox console, took the time to offer his sympathies to Zawadzki and assure him that "we have your back."
CD Projekt Red's developers have worked long and hard to put Cyberpunk 2077 together, and under no circumstances do they deserve this abuse. Reports have indicated that the developers didn't even know the game was being delayed until the news went live on Twitter, which has surely contributed even more to the stress the team must be feeling, especially since it's been known for some time that CD Projekt Red's developers have been under a lot of crunch. These hateful, threatening messages would be completely unwarranted even if these extenuating circumstances weren't a factor, but given everything else the team is going through, they're all the more vile and reprehensible.
Making a video game is not an easy thing to do. There are probably very few if any people currently sending death threats to CD Projekt Red's developers who would be at all capable of making a video game, let alone one on the level of Cyberpunk 2077. That they continue to heap hatred and vitriol on these developers anyway indicates a total lack of empathy and basic human understanding. It's good to see prominent figures like Blackley and Barlog come together to support the developers in this troubling time. Hopefully someday this harassment will stop being a problem for hard working game developers.
