Romanian developer Quantic Lab is being scrutinized over allegations of mismanagement and malpractice. Past and present workers of the corporate informed PC Gamer that the mismanagement helped contribute to the notorious launch state of Cyberpunk 2077.

Quantic Lab was one in every of a number of exterior QA builders that labored on CD Projekt Red’s 2020 RPG. The studio beforehand drew consideration earlier within the 12 months after a video from Upper Echelon alleged that the studio did not prioritize correct focus, and Quantic CEO Stefan Seicarescu later refuted these claims. 

However, these talking to PC Gamer mentioned that the studio was missing in skilled QA employees whereas engaged on the sport. And it appears Cyberpunk wasn’t an remoted incident: that inexperience was reported to be pretty frequent all through different video games the studio labored on. 

One supply claimed that of the 30 builders first assigned to Cyberpunk, lower than half of them had QA expertise. Of these builders, none of them had expertise longer than a 12 months. As a consequence, Quantic Lab reportedly “underperformed” in its duties, and its administration clashed with CDPR over improvement priorities. 

As Quantic was engaged on Cyberpunk, it additionally had different contracts to satisfy, which was mentioned to trigger a pressure on staffing points. An ex-senior worker mentioned that misrepresenting the studio’s dimension and expertise was “commonplace apply,” and a former lead added that lead testers would typically supervise two or three a tasks directly with much less testers than desired.

“I used to be a lead tester in touch with shoppers and I needed to lie about their workforce’s dimension…dozens of fucking instances,” admitted a former staffer.  

Several workers additionally knowledgeable PC Gamer of Quantic Lab’s excessive turnover charge and poisonous work tradition. Managers had been alleged to have incessantly berated lead testers, loudly stating that testing video games was “unskilled work.” Often, Quantic would usher in employees by snatching up latest graduates. 

QA builders contemporary out of college had been paid lower than half of what older coworkers had been making. Around the time of Cyberpunk’s improvement, junior testers had been incomes 1,450 Romanian lei ($285 a month ). Lead testers earned 3,826 lei ($753/mo). 

Some builders who left Quantic Lab departed with the thought that the corporate cannot be saved, not less than not except an overhaul from the highest down happens. Others are burnt out utterly, with one saying that their time on the studio “made me hate video games. […] I by no means tried working in sport improvement once more, although it was my ardour at first.”

Game Developer has reached out to Quantic Lab, and can replace this story if the studio responds.