Naughty Dog has been called out several times over the years for their unhealthy crunchy culture. His acclaimed, highly ambitious games like Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Last of Us Part 2 required development teams of hundreds to work overtime to get there. While major delays and inconsistent production timelines meant that once the end was finally in sight, the goalposts were moved and people were simply asked to deal with it.
All of these games pushed the medium forward with prestigious stories, realistic characters, and visuals that pushed the boundaries of realism; but all these revolutionary things came at an undeniable human cost. Developers who burned themselves out and lost their love for the craft were kept away from their families for months, praying they would have enough time to make this game the best it could be.
Millions of copies sold and critical acclaim aside, enough former developers and journalists have called attention to these practices that something needs to be done. The pandemic, relentless layoffs, and the overall state of the ever-changing industry meant that Naughty Dog had an incentive to change its culture for the better. And for a few years it looked like the studio was starting to learn from past mistakes.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet has never been immune to Naughty Dog's Crunch culture
At the end of the documentary 'Grounded 2: 'The Making Of The Last Of Us Part 2', studio head Neil Druckmann briefly comments on how, after developing the game, he and senior members of Naughty Dog reflected on how the crisis culture permeated the entire studio and became a common characteristic of his projects and the guilt of allowing it to happen. There is some legitimate empathy expressed here, and Druckmann even says that the ultimate goal is to eliminate the crunch entirely.
I have no doubt that there were serious conversations and efforts were made at Naughty Dog to analyze the root causes of the crunch, the effects it had and what could be done to prevent it. I remember after TLOU 2 was finished there was a bit of an exodus of creative talent at the studio who decided to move on to new things. Some of these individuals were temporary contractors, while others had simply had enough.
I can't imagine landing my dream job at a place like this, a developer known for making some of the best games ever made, only to have the life drained out of me slowly but surely. This shouldn't be a reality, but when you're pushing the envelope the way Naughty Dog is trying to, it's impossible to avoid.
Intergalatic: The Heretic Prophet has already been described by Druckmann as the biggest and most ambitious game Naughty Dog has ever created, and plans to incorporate vast environments to explore along with the detailed characters and story that Naughty Dog is known for.
Players will expect something on par with The Last of Us Part 2, which was a relatively linear experience in the grand scheme of things. I can't imagine how much work will go into expanding this formula into a more open world idea, but with the same amount of detail.
No game is worth destroying human lives, not even a naughty dog's
Trying to accommodate this has proven to inevitably lead to upheaval, with a new report from Bloomberg claiming that Naughty Dog employees are already working 60-hour weeks ahead of the game's in-house demo. With a release date slated for 2027, according to the same report, people fear that this level of work will either become the norm or act as a prelude to something far worse. In October, the development team was asked to work an additional eight hours per week, with this time recorded on an internal spreadsheet, which I assume is related to compensation.
These extra hours are apparently being implemented to get production back on track after the project missed several internal deadlines to prepare the aforementioned demo. It looks like working hours will return to normal by the end of January, as will the normal hybrid studio environment, although only time will tell if this is true. Naughty Dog is known for excellence, and the only solution to preventing crunch culture is to accept that they're even willing to let that quality bar slip if it means taking better care of their employees.
The Last of Us Part 2 was full of intricate details like ice particles breaking under the feet of characters and animals, the most realistic rope physics in gaming, and a lot of things, both mechanically and visually, that helped make it feel alive. I want to see the same level of craftsmanship with Intergalactic as a player, but not if it destroys the people behind it. There are often sacrifices to be made in the pursuit of great art, but leaders like Naughty Dog should also be observant enough to recognize when their teams are being pushed beyond their limits or when burnout looms ominously on the horizon.
Decades ago, it seemed like crunch was just an accepted aspect of game development, and when you got to a certain point in a project, everyone needed to buckle down and do something. But even triple-A experience was only a few years back then. Now something like Intergalatic: The Heretic Prophet can take at least half a decade. It also requires more resources, time, skill and nuance in the whole process if you want to move the medium forward again. In this work environment, you have to manage things properly or risk sending the entire team into oblivion with few escape routes. That's exactly how often there are long delays and brutal periods of crisis.
Grounded features several studio executives who touch on crunch culture with real empathy, and I have no doubt that they've tried to put processes in place to prevent what happened on previous projects from happening again, but that seems to be exactly what's happening. You can't fight crunch culture if the studio is going to make games exactly the same way and with the same expectations. Something has to give.
I have no doubt that Intergalactic will be an incredible game when it finally arrives in a few years, but I don't want it to be a product of an outdated crunch culture that is destined to facilitate burnout and ruin people's lives. No game is worth that price, even PlayStation exclusives like this often promise the world and over-deliver. If Naughty Dog really tried and failed to fight the crisis, only to succumb to its intense embrace again, they need to take a good, hard look at themselves and ask if video games are worth this outrageous price.
