A new report claims that The Last of Us and Uncharted studio Naughty Dog recently ordered its employees to take on “mandatory” overtime, often known as ‘crunch’, in order to finalise a demo for its next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
According to a report by Bloomberg, staff at Naughty Dog were asked to work a minimum of eight extra hours a week to get back on track after several missed deadlines, but no more than a total of 60 hours a week.
In addition to the extra hours, sources at Naughty Dog said developers were instructed to come into the office for five days a week. This was up from the previous three days a week office mandate.
A knock-on effect of this change left many employees needing to source extra child and pet care. According to the report, studio management has told employees its in-office mandate will return to three days a week for January. Sources added this period of additional mandatory overtime at Naughty Dog came to an end this week for many, having begun in late October, though some wonder if it will happen again.
Meanwhile, the demo for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which staff were crunching to finalise for parent company Sony, was apparently completed this week. Allegedly, Naughty Dog is aiming to release the game some time in mid-2027.
Neither Sony nor Naughty Dog has commented on the report’s claims.
Naughty Dog was previously the subject of a damning report in 2020, again regarding crunch at the studio. At this time, it was said development on its then-upcoming The Last of Us Part 2 resulted in burnout which caused several members of Naughty Dog’s staff to leave.
In 2021, the studio’s then co-presidents Evan Wells and Neil Druckmann addressed crunch at the studio. At this time, Wells said: “I have definitely personally worked very hard over the years. I think some of that has helped me get to where I am in my career.”
Druckmann, who remains at the studio, added: “We’re looking at quality of life for preventing burnout, to employ the brain power we have in our studio, and we started coming up with working groups to talk about the areas in the studio where we can improve… Everybody has a different definition of what crunch means. And I guess for us, we think of it as, how do we look out for the well-being of our colleagues and everyone that works at Naughty Dog, which is some combination of how many hours you work and how much stress you’re feeling, whether that’s something that’s going on in the office or at home.
“We find that there is no one solution that fits everybody. Everybody has a unique situation we might need to address.”
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet was first announced at the end of last year, with a trailer featuring a retro futuristic energy that introduced us to Tati Gabrielle’s bounty hunter, Jordan A Mun.
While we still don’t know a huge amount about Naughty Dog’s upcoming release, Druckmann revealed in March that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophecy explores the topics of “faith and religion”. It will also be the studio’s “most ambitious game” it’s “ever made”.
