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Cyberpunk 2077 Creative Director joins Blizzard

Gerwant

Gerwant

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,040
From his LinkedIn profile, nothing more to add at the moment:

linkedindok37.png


https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastian-stępień-3bb81947/

Creative director leaving while the game is still in development is rather unusual, right?
 
Francesco

Francesco

Member
Nov 22, 2017
2,521
This looks to me like better news from Blizzard than worse from CDPR.
The move from Poland to California might have been a bit of a shock.
 
cvbas

cvbas

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,164
Brazil
This looks rather unusual indeed. Unless Cyberpunk is much later in development than we imagined.
 
trashkitty

trashkitty

Member
Oct 30, 2017
31
It's likely that by this point they're done with most of the story and narrative and are just building a lot of the remaining stuff to have it in a properly releasable state.
 
Silky

Silky

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,522
Georgia
It'll be nice to have a, from what I understand, a well regarded creative lead working at a company with a good sense of style and art direction

But yeah this is normal, stop stalking linkedin profiles and making threads about it damn
 
Rodjer

Rodjer

Self-requested ban.
Member
Jan 28, 2018
4,808
This is normal, once the job is done you get your paycheck and move on.
 
Toumari

Toumari

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,299
England
Seems he actually wasn't the current Creative Director and was 'demoted' to Narrative/Setting Director, so probably not a huge deal.
 
ToddBonzalez

ToddBonzalez

The Pyramids? That's nothing compared to RDR2
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
15,530
Well, I feel like it's a bit odd he didn't want to see the game he directed for 6 years to ship.
 
illamap

illamap

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
466
There is probably very few creative director roles available on good companies so it is best to go there if you get an offer before someone else does.
 
Odeko

Odeko

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Mar 22, 2018
15,180
West Blue
Uhh, I'm going to disagree with the majority of this thread and say it's not normal for the creative director to leave mid-flight. It would be like the director of a movie leaving after shooting is done and not overseeing any of the editing.
 
Minilla

Minilla

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,514
Tokyo
Do people actually know that its common for games creative directors to leave like 12 months before release or whatever? Call BS that they do. Cos most big creative directors give interviews on the games release.

Could be a major reboot with not long to go, ala Destiny
 
Toumari

Toumari

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,299
England
This isn't the first high profile departure from CDPR in the last couple of months. This was the guy who presented the game at E3:

 
Paul

Paul

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,603
Stepien is very talented, to see him go where talented developers go to creatively die is super depressing.
I fully expect him to come back in few years after having released nothing of note at Blizzard, Leon Boyarsky-style.
 
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DSP

DSP

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,120
Blizzard probably pays 3x as much or similar.

What his experience brings to Blizzard though I have no idea. They don't make narrative focused games which he has worked on thus far.
 
Antiax

Antiax

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,652
What a loss for CDPR. Interesting pick-up from Blizzard - they must have given him a lot of freedom.
 
Kill3r7

Kill3r7

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,375
I imagine their talent is highly sought after and stands to get a huge paybump from other big AAA publishers.
 
Static

Static

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
6,107
Creative director? Is this guy stepping into Metzen's shoes?
AuthenticM said:
I thought people were leaving Blizzard. :/
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Why the long face?

Changing of the guard, though. People leaving blizzard means there are spots to fill. People were expressing concern because some of that guard is very very old, and had kept a relatively reliable hand at the rudder for lo these past 20 years.
 
Mildoze

Mildoze

Member
Feb 4, 2018
12
KC, KS
This is good news hopefully. A great creative person going INTO Blizzard hopefully means more well developed new games and content is on the stove for Blizzard. Also this likely means CDPR is far into Cyberpunk development that the Director of Creative development is no longer a vital role as one might worry when seeing such a high level member of the team leaving... let's also not forget how many people are working on this new CDPR game... losing one person to another super high profile developer isn't gonna spell doom for the project they're leaving behind.
 
Scuffed

Scuffed

Member
Oct 28, 2017
10,819
They probably offered him a ton of money. Hopefully his clout can keep the marketing people off his back long enough to make a good Blizzard game.
 
Budi

Budi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,881
Finland
Activision-Blizzard with those moves after letting Bungie go. I'm expecting a new IP with him involved.
 
RumbleHumble

RumbleHumble

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,128
Hopefully it's just a sign that the writing and creative design is mostly resolved. Didn't they hint at a 2019 release date last year or was that just my brain mis-remembering?
 
Antiax

Antiax

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,652
I just asked my friend from CDPR and he told me that the board was surprised by his leaving. He didn't accept the big pay rise they have offered him.
 

ColonelForbin

Member
Oct 28, 2017
601
That new director is moving on because he is getting a new FAT paycheck. I am confident the pay scale is much higher at blizzard. I wouldn't look too deeply into cyberpunk losing him. People leave jobs all the time for various reasons. MONEY is a powerful motivator.
 
Kill3r7

Kill3r7

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,375
ColonelForbin said:
That new director is moving on because he is getting a new FAT paycheck. I am confident the pay scale is much higher at blizzard. I wouldn't look too deeply into cyberpunk losing him. People leave jobs all the time for various reasons. MONEY is a powerful motivator.
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Yep. Although I suspect that CDPR is particularly susceptible to poaching due to the massive differences in salary and bonuses.
 
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