CD Projekt joint CEO Michał Nowakowski has issued a strongly worded response to accusations that the studio “is in a lot of trouble right now” because of “diversity hires,” saying the people peddling such nonsense need to “stop looking for conspiracy theories.”
“Seems we live in times where anyone can record complete nonsense and make a story out of it,” Nowakowski said in response to a post on X by YouTuber Endymion, who has a long history of stridently complaining about diversity and “wokeness” in videogames.
“CDPR talent leaving? We have the lowest rotation of people in recent years. DEI-driven recruitment? We hire based on merit and talent alone, just as we make games driven by artistic vision alone. Why did we choose [Unreal Engine]? Because it enables us to work on our games more efficiently and we remain cutting edge tech-wise. The Witcher 3’s director left? Well, yeah, more than 2 years ago… Now, can we stop looking for conspiracy theories and go back to making cool stuff?”
Depends what your goal is.
If you are trying to change that persons actions specifically, it likely is a lose lose, because they will make more of the same content about the response.
The goal here isnt to actually stop the youtuber from doing anything. The goal is to offer a different firsthand perspective from inside the company, and I think this message does that.
Now anyone that hears about the initial YouTube video, will also hear about the response, and the average person is likely to believe the studios version over a youtuber.
I think saying nothing would distance the company from its fans to some degree, and putting out some PR spin would backfire immediately.
I think that if replies are rare and spot on, it may be a good PR. But do it every time and it will just be a waste of time without any good results