Apropos CP's delay announce today ( https://twitter.com/CyberpunkGame/status/1321128432370176002), w budgets this high you don't easily pass up the op to hit retail for thanksgiving/black friday, esp having gold master already - this is an expensive late date move & not done lightly (or poss even voluntarily). 1/11

Lots of possible reasons why, but most likely serious cert or other quality issues found or resurfaced. Serious enough to delay the release date and not just fix on a day 1 patch. 2/11

Even if it only affects some of the platforms it's still preferable to sim-ship everything (although could possibly also be a contractual thing, such as req certain platforms to be first). 3/11

Regardless of why, this new firedrill on a resub or day 0 patch will impact release of other work (day 1 patch, any content updates etc). Even if ready, it'll be too risky to include any changes other than what is needed to secure the launch. 4/11

The biggest impact will of course be on the dev team, who've already been in crunch for months already (and who apparently also only found out when this was announced publicly). In addition to extending crunch further, there's other tangible impacts. 5/11

A multi-platform launch is a stressful time, and a failed sub / time critical turnaround like this on one or more platforms is incredibly stressful on a tired team, as literally everything is riding on it. 6/11

Mentally, it's also hard to describe what its like nearing a difficult finish line only to have it shift out again. 7/11

The closest I can think of is to imagine that movie scene where the nearly dead character musters ev they can to barely reach the desert oasis only to have it fade away - it was just a mirage all along. 8/11

It also means things like further delayed or cancelled vacations, particularly as day 1 patch etc will presumably also be bumped now. Worst case, could mean early returns for some already on break after the GM but needed for these fixes. 9/11

With that context, a reminder that devs are not paid any overtime, and see little if any of the financial upside of these types of decisions. At best, there may be bonuses (at discretion), or a few extra vacation days (but a fraction of time spent in crunch). 10/11

So the callout here is please don't be that person that lashes out at the devs, community team, or other public facing folks on the team. You can be disappointed w/o resorting to that. The devs did not ask for this and last thing they want is to disappoint anyone. /fin

Quick addendum - https://twitter.com/Transeint_Light/status/1321270163807809537 - looks like at least in this case devs are being paid overtime & there's a bonus pool. Callout stands, this is not an easy time for the devs, but at least they are paid for the time, which is more than can be said for other studios.