When Gabe Amatangelo stepped into the director role for Cyberpunk 2077 in May 2021, morale among the team was low. The RPG had sold 13 million copies, yet was plagued with bugs and ran so poorly on older consoles it was pulled from sale on the PlayStation Store. CD Projekt’s stock price cratered. Cyberpunk’s former director had left CDPR after an investigation into workplace bullying. So when Amatangelo said yes to the job, that yes came with conditions.
“Part of my conversation at the beginning with my boss and the board was: I believe in the team, I believe in this IP, but I want to do it right. And was a deliberate step along the path to 2.0 and its ultimate redemption—walking away after merely polishing up performance and bugs was never even on the table.
