Naughty Dog has been called out for their unhealthy crunch culture a number of times over the years. Its acclaimed, highly ambitious games such as Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Last of Us Part 2 both required development teams of hundreds to work overtime to reach the finish line. While high-profile delays and inconsistent production timelines meant that when 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 prestige stories, true-to-life characters and visuals that pushed the boundaries of realism; but all these breakthroughs came at an undeniable human cost. Developers who burned themselves out and lost the love of their craft, were kept away from their families for months at a time, 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 called out these practices that something had to be done. The pandemic, relentless layoffs, and the general state of an ever-changing industry meant that Naughty Dog had an incentive to change its culture for the better. And for a couple of years it felt like the studio had started to learn from past mistakes.
Intergalactic: The Heretical Prophet was never going to be 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 the game's development, he and senior members of Naughty Dog reflected on how crunch culture had permeated the studio and become a common feature of its projects and the guilt they felt for allowing it to happen in the first place. There is some legitimate empathy expressed here, and Druckmann even says that the ultimate goal is to completely eliminate crunch.
I have no doubt that serious conversations were had, 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 that after the completion of TLOU 2 there was a small exodus of creative talent in the studio who decided to move on to new things. Some of these people were temporary entrepreneurs, while others simply had enough.
I can't imagine landing a dream job at a place like this, a developer known for creating some of the best games ever made, only to have the life drained out of me slowly but surely. It shouldn't be reality, but when you're pushing the envelope as much as Naughty Dog is striving for, it feels impossible to avoid.
Intergalatic: The Heretic Prophet has already been described by Druckmann as the biggest and most ambitious game Naughty Dog has ever made, with it planning to incorporate large environments to explore alongside the detailed characters and story Naughty Dog has become known for.
Players will expect something on par with The Last of Us Part 2, which was a relatively linear experience overall. 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 ruining human life for, even a naughty dog
It turns out that trying to deliver on this inevitably results in crisis, with a new report from Bloomberg claiming that employees at Naughty Dog are already working 60-hour weeks before preparing an internal demo for the game. With its release date slated for 2027, according to the same report, people are worried that this level of work will either become the norm or serve as a prelude to something much worse. Back in October, the development team was asked to work an additional eight hours per week, with this time being logged in 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 and preparing the aforementioned demo. It appears that working hours will return to normal at the end of January, as will the studio's normal hybrid environment, although only time will tell if this is true or not. Naughty Dog is known for perfection, and the only solution to preventing crunch culture is to accept that it's willing to let that bar of quality slide at all if it means taking better care of its employees.
The Last of Us Part 2 was filled with intimately crafted details like particles of ice breaking under the feet of characters and animals, the most realistic rope physics in gaming, and so many 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. Sacrifices often have to be made in the pursuit of great art, but leaders in positions like Naughty Dog should also be alert enough to recognize when their teams are being pushed beyond their limits or burnout looms ominously on the horizon.
Decades ago, it seemed like crunch was simply an accepted aspect of game development, and when you reached a certain point in a project, everyone needed to buckle down and get things done. But that was then even triple-A experiences only took a couple of years to make. Something like Intergalatic: The Heretic Prophet could take at least half a decade. It also requires more resources, time, skill and nuance across the entire process if you want to push the medium forward again. In this work environment, you have to have the right pace or you risk sending an entire team into oblivion with few escape options. That is exactly how long delays and brutal periods of crisis occur so often.
The documentary Grounded features several senior people at the studio touching on crunch culture with genuine empathy, and I have no doubt they tried to put processes in place to prevent what happened in previous projects from re-emerging, but somehow that's exactly what seems to be happening. You can't fight crunch culture if the studio keeps making games the exact same way with the exact same expectations. Something has to give.
I have no doubt that Intergalactic will be an incredible game when it finally arrives in a couple of years, but I don't want it to be the product of an outdated crunch culture, which is meant to facilitate burnout and ruin lives. No game is worth such a cost, even PlayStation exclusives like this often promise the world and over deliver. If Naughty Dog really tried and failed to address crunch only to succumb to its intense embrace again, it needs to take a good, hard look at itself and ask if video games are worth this high price.
