Cyberpunk 2077 has a disastrous launch, to say the least. However, the game still sold pretty well. Still, the executives at CD Projekt Red are slated to receive massive financial bonuses in millions of dollars while the developer’s staff (AKA the ones who actually made the game) are only getting smaller bonuses.

According to a report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, the staff at CD Projekt Red were expecting to get a higher bonus. As of now, they told Bloomberg that they will receive bonuses of about US$5,000 to about US$9,000, while the senior employees will receive closer to US$15,000 or US$20,000.

In comparison, CD Projekt Red CEO Marcin Iwiński and co-CEO Adam Kiciński are each slated to receive a bonus of 24 million zloty, or US$6.3 million. Another board member, Adam Badowski, will take home US$4.2 million. From CD Projekt’s total annual earnings, 20 percent is allocated to profit-sharing bonuses, with 10 percent going to employees and 10 percent going to the board.

What this translates to is that the company had allocated a total of US$29.8 million to 865 employees, for an average of about US$34,000 each. Meanwhile, five of CD Projekt’s board members received bonuses amounting to a whopping US$28 million.

During an investors call last week, Kicinski justified the bonuses, saying:

“We earned this money and the company earned this money, of course, but more net profits, more bonuses.

So well, we have results, we get bonuses, and that’s the contract we have.”

Despite the stark difference in bonuses, one CD Projekt Red employee did tell Bloomberg that the company reevaluated salaries and increased wages this year in 2021 for some of the lowest-paid positions, such as testing, to align them with video game industry standards.

Well, one step forward is still better than nothing.