Kotaku is a well-known video game website and blog. In fact, any active gamer is well-acquainted with this website. The developers first launched it in 2004. At that time, it was a part of Gawker Media. However, many notable personalities in the field of gaming and journalism have been associated with this network. The list includes the likes of Tim Rogers, Luke Smith, Jason Schreier, and Cecilia D’Anastasio.
We generally know this website for publishing updates and reviews about video games. However, it has also been involved in controversies in the past. In fact, in 2007, Sony temporarily blacklisted Kotaku. Moreover, in 2015, they claimed that Bethesda Softworks and Ubisoft had also blacklisted them.
In spite of these controversies, Kotaku has been a greatly useful website for getting various updates about the gaming world. This year, on 29th June, Kotaku published a report about Cyberpunk 2077. We know that Cyberpunk 2077 was full of technical bugs and developmental woes.
According to the report published by the website, a YouTuber named Upper Echelon Gamers has brought some interesting details to the fore. The channel stated that during the development of the game, a QA firm largely misled CD Projekt Red. However, in a VGC interview, Stefan Seicarescu, the CEO of the quality assurance firm, stated that it was nothing but a huge misunderstanding. Read the article to know more about the issue.
Kotaku: The Incident
Kotaku reports that on 25th June, a YouTube channel named Upper Echelon Gamers posted a video. In that video, UEG discussed various details obtained from a whistleblower from Quantic Lab. Quantic Lab is a quality assurance testing team based in Romania. In fact, the firm has a reputation for known fishing out bugs from various games like Destroy All Humans, Desperados III, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and even Cyberpunk 2077.
The anonymous whistleblower, who is an employee of the Quantic Lab, sent an email to UEG on 23rd June. In that email, the employee stated everything that happened during the QA testing of Cyberpunk 2077. According to the report of Kotaku, UEG believes that the source is authentic.
In the video, Upper Echelon Gamers states that the whistleblower stated that in 2019 a team from the Quantic Lab was sent to Poland to work with the developer of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red. Quantic Lab was to send an experienced team for the QA testing. But the whistleblower claimed that the team that traveled to Poland consisted of mainly “junior testers.”The testers had less than a year of working experience. However, the developers, being unaware of this fact, trusted them as veterans who had the experience of working on The Witcher 3.
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Apart from this, there was yet another issue. There have been allegations against the higher authority of Quantic Lab that they have introduced a “bug quota” for each employee. This quota allegedly requires an employee to submit a minimum of 10 bugs a day. Upper Echelon Gamers in the video claimed that to maintain this policy; the quality assurance testers focused on numerous minor and low-priority bugs. This ultimately overworked the testers and resulted in the missing out on certain greater bugs.
The Response of Quantic Lab
Kotaku further states that immediately following the video of Upper Echelon Gamers, Stefan Seicarescu, the CEO of Quantic Lab appeared in an interview with VideoGamesChronicle. Stefan stated that the entire thing was nothing but a misunderstanding. Interestingly, he did not deny or accept any particular claim made by UEG. Rather he stated that the video was full of inaccurate details about QA testing.
Stefan further states that in today’s world a game developer never relies on a singular QA team. Therefore, he suggested CD Projekt Red consult some other firms for their Cyberpunk 2077. He also stated that Quantic Lab handles over 200 projects every year. In doing this, they always prioritize quality. He further claimed that they maintain a highly professional approach to their clients and work with utmost transparency.
Concluding Lines
According to Kotaku the CEO of the Quantic Lab therefore, has claimed that the video published by UEG is full of unreal claims about QA testing. However, he never discussed particular claims in detail. On the other hand, Upper Echelon Gamers claims his source to be an authentic one.
Thus, doubts remain. Cyberpunk 2077 has been a disaster with lots of bugs. Therefore, it remains to be seen how the developers react in this regard.
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