CD Projekt has been reducing the size of the GWENT team for a while now. It looks like the remaining employees will be laid off before the end of 2023, when the game enters the so-called GWENTfinity phase (in other words, the end of content support).
The Brute, Gwent card
- On May 24, CD Projekt RED posted an update on the structure of the Gwent team (spotted by IGN). The company announced that while the game is approaching the end of its life cycle, it will have to cut some employees.
- As CEO Adam Kiciński explained in the latest financial report, the Gwent team will continue to “gradually decrease in size till the end of this year.” CD Projekt has moved some developers to other projects, but the remaining employees will be let go.
- The announcement on the Gwent website clarifies the scope of the job cuts. “Until the end of the year, about 30 remaining GWENT team members are going to part ways with,” CD Projekt noted, saying that as the end of content support gets closer, “the resources and roles required behind the scenes are naturally declining.”
- As the company’s spokesperson told IGN, four team members will be laid off in June. Some developers have already left the company on their own, like Gwent senior gameplay designer Jean Auquier (he is now working at Sifu developer Slocap).
CD Projekt announced the end of content support for Gwent last December, promising to release 72 new cards, fix some archetypes with balance patches, and host two last esports tournaments during 2023. After that, the game will no longer receive any new updates from the developers.
Instead, players will get a tool called “GWENTfinity”, which will allow the community to balance Gwent themselves through a special voting system. However, users won’t be able to create new cards or significantly change the design of the existing ones (other than their provision and power).
Although CD Projekt RED says Gwent will “move into a new era” with the help of the community, many users believe that the end of content support will eventually lead to the exodus of players and the inevitable oblivion of the game.
The reduction of the Gwent team follows the layoffs at its subsidiary Spokko, which was hit with job cuts after the shutdown of The Witcher: Monster Slayer in December. Another subsidiary, The Molasses Flood, recently lost 29 employees after defining a new framework for Project Sirius, a story-driven Witcher spin-off with multiplayer elements.
CD Projekt is now primary focused on its big games, including the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 and the next Witcher title codenamed Project Polaris. More about the company’s team structure and its development expenditures can be found in this article.