Yaaa this is a big red flag.
The "Death March" in video game development is when a games dev team has entered "Crunch Time", but the game has still been delayed more than once. This usually indicates that the game is not up to par, even after delays, because the development is critically flawed. What would happen is that the dev team will eventually "drop dead" and they'll either cancel the game, or just release it in its current state, which of course ends up mediocre, hence the Death March.
It's a huge red flag, and I fear is what is likely happening to CDPR behind the scenes. I've cancelled my pre-order, and will be waiting for the game to come out and get a few reviews before I buy it. This is ridiculous that they have to delay the game mere weeks before launch despite telling us there would be no more delays and after two other delays, after MANY YEARS of development. What's worse is that people have the nerve to talk down on those who are rightfully pissed off about this.
Reading the report given by CDPR, its not that the game is really in any dev stage anymore. They are delaying to allow for testing as far as I can tell, so the "Death March" nor "Crunch time" is not a red flag for me. I mean, at the end of the day the price for pre-order and price for release is going to be 100% the same for whatever time it does come out + the time it will stick around for in the future. So not going to save any money cancelling it just to buy it later anyway.
I think they are generally just trying to get a good game out, with them now testing it on 9 different platforms which they have developed for, and developing for one platform alone is hard, developing for multiple like just PC and then PS4 + Xbox One is even harder, but then they are developing for lots of them which can either be good or bad.
With me doing dev work IRL, development isn't easy and it can get annoying to need delays and at times make sure everything is working as intended. Also worth noting that while CDPR themselves have said they need the delays with the really long wait time probably isn't coming from the devs themselves, but rather their management/product people.
And any developer knows that Product and Management is the worst enemy for the developers as when you put non-technical people in charge, for example, it can become a recipe for disaster where the devs expect to release in 2021, but management/product says let's make a deadline for early 2020... to which the devs fail to meet, so they delay to later in 2020 not 2021 which the devs asked for. So then that delay happens and late 2020 comes around... delay again because the devs were unable to meet the deadline. Again they ask for 2021 but product doesn't care and instead says "well we look like we are almost finished so delay by a few weeks to end of 2020!" while the devs probs sit there and go "2020 is not possible at all, stop trying and go for 2021!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"... well at least that is what they are saying in their heads and probs refuse to speak up anymore as they know they will get ignored.
If there is a technical person in charge then it is either upper management selecting deadlines or some miscalculation on the technical guy's behalf of how much work was left. In development, one should always expect the unexpected and a few delays doesn't always = death march or crunch time. That is wrong to assume. It just means they are working at the same pace and realized that hmm... we don't have enough time, let's push it back to give us some more breathing room. A delay does not mean there is something bad, could easily just be a person doing a few miscalculations as dev work is indeed... Unpredictable.
What's worse is that people have the nerve to talk down on those who are rightfully pissed off about this.
Some people do that because of the fact that over the years it has become painfully clear that there are far too many toxic people in the online community who abuse developers day by day. Only developers themselves understand the struggles of development and anyone outside of that circle 99.99% of the time understand jackshit about development. Even I myself get pissed off at people when they attack developers for simply doing their jobs and people blaming them for everything when actually, it is never really their fault. They simply take orders from the top brass of the company they work for and carry it out.
Developers in the last few years have completely stopped listening to the players because lets be honest... the entirety of humanity is a dick towards them and is never happy. So devs simply ignore social media and at times tell players to go fuck themselves as they can't be asked to deal with the whining bitches at their doorstep.
Like Fallout 76, No man's sky, watchdogs, etc any shit game you can list... you can never really blame the developers... nor should you ever blame them... unless it is Yandere Simulator... that is an exception. But anyway, those games I just listed, whose fault is it really for the failure? Developers? The Publishers? Or the internal Management? If you ask me... it is the Publishers AND internal management... not the Developers. One thing I really wish for in the gaming community is to shut the fuck up and stop barking at the devs when something goes wrong as it is never their fault.
So it is, overall understandable why people shoot you down when you complain and screech at a company for delays or shitty releases. Some people are fed up at the mob who fails to learn their lesson and won't just quit their whining.
