Earlier this week, YouTube channel Upper Echelon Gamers published a video wherein a whistleblower claimed that Cyberpunk 2077’s bugs were the result of various practices at Quantic Labs, a studio hired by CD Projekt Red to oversee quality assurance on its 2020 sci-fi RPG. After being contacted by PCGamesN, Quantic Labs has now issued an official response to the claims, describing some of the statements made in the original video as “incorrect”.
In the statement, signed by Quantic Labs’ CEO Stefan Seicarescu, the QA studio, which also worked on The Witcher 3, explains that the claims the whistleblower made represent a misunderstanding of game development and do not reflect the process of quality assurance on large-budget games.
“The video published on social media starts with incorrect statements about Quantic Lab’s history,” Quantic Labs explains. “[And] there seems to be a lack of understanding in the process of how a game is tested before its release to market.
“All our customer agreements are confidential, but in general, global publishers are working with several QA outsourcing companies, not depending solely on one, in addition to internal QA resources at developer level in most cases. Project direction is agreed and adjusted accordingly as per real-time requirements with our clients.”
In Upper Echelon Gamers’ initial video, the anonymous whistleblower claims that CD Projekt Red expected that the QA team Quantic Labs assigned to Cyberpunk would be comprised of similar, senior staff members as the team for The Witcher 3. They also claim that Quantic Labs instated daily bug-finding quotas for its staff, which led to testers focusing on small, trivial bugs in order to meet their targets, rather than Cyberpunk’s more significant issues.
While that may still be true, this statement suggests that Quantic Labs was not the only company responsible for Cyberpunk 2077’s QA. By extension, that means the responsibility to test the game prior to release did not lie with Quantic Labs alone.
We will continue to update you on this story as it develops.
