Naughty Dog has been called out many times over the years for its unhealthy crunch culture. Its lauded, highly ambitious games like Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Last of Us Part 2 required development teams working hundreds of overtime to get to the finish line. While high-profile delays and inconsistent production timelines meant that once the end was finally seen, the goalposts were moved and people were told to just deal with it.
All of these games advanced the medium with iconic stories, vivid characters, and visuals that pushed the boundaries of realism; But all of these important things came at an undeniable human cost. Developers who burned themselves out and lost love for the craft, were kept from their families for months at a time, and prayed they had enough time to make the game the best it could possibly be.
With millions of copies sold and critical acclaim aside, enough former developers and journalists called out these practices that something had to be done. Epidemics, relentless layoffs, and the general state of a changing industry meant that Naughty Dog had the incentive to change its culture for the better. And for a few years, it felt like the studio was learning from past mistakes.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet would never have been immune to Naughty Dog's crunch culture.
At the end of the 'Grounded 2: The Making of the Last of Us Part 2' documentary, studio head Neil Druckmann makes a brief comment about how, after the game's development, he and senior members of Naughty Dog had spread the crunch culture at the studio and become a common feature of its projects, and how they felt guilty for letting it happen in the first place. There's some legitimate empathy expressed here, and even Druckmann says the ultimate goal is to eliminate the crunch altogether.
I have no doubt that serious conversations were had, and efforts were made in the mischievous dog to analyze the root causes of the crunch, the effects it has, and what can be done to prevent it. I remember that after the completion of TLOU 2, there was a small exodus of creative talent at the studio who decided to move on to new things. Some of these people were temporary contractors, while others had just enough.
I couldn'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 slowly but surely have the life drained out of me. That shouldn't be reality, but when you're pushing the envelope as hard as Naughty Dog tries, it feels impossible to ignore.
Intergalatic: Heretic Prophet has already been described by Druckmann as the biggest and most ambitious game Naughty Dog has ever made, planning to include vast environments to explore with the detailed characters and story Naughty Dog has become famous for.
Gamers are going to expect something on par with The Last of Us Part 2, which was a relatively linear experience in the grand scheme of things. Can't imagine the amount of work to expand this formula into a more open world idea, but with the same amount of detail.
No game is worth wasting a human life, not even a naughty dog
Turns out that trying to deliver it will inevitably result in a crunch, with a new report from Bloomberg claiming that Naughty Dog employees have been working 60 hours in advance to prepare an internal demo for the game. With its release date set 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, this time logged within an internal spreadsheet, which I assume is related to compensation.
These extra hours have apparently been put into getting the product back on track after the project missed several internal deadlines and produced the aforementioned demo. Working hours seem to be returning to normal by the end of January as the studio's usual hybrid environment, though only time will tell if this rings true. Naughty Dog is known for perfection, and the only solution to stopping the crunch culture is to admit that it's willing to let that quality bar slip if it means taking better care of its employees.
The Last of Us Part 2 was full of intimately crafted details, like ice particles breaking under the feet of characters and animals, the most realistic rope physics in gaming, and more mechanically and visually, which helped it feel alive. I'd like to see this same level of craftsmanship with Intergalactic as a player, but not if it destroys the people behind it. Sacrifices are often necessary in the pursuit of great art, but even leaders in positions like Naughty Dog need to be observant enough to sense 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 stuff. But even after that, it took only two years of Triple-A experience. Now something like Intergalatic: The Heretic Prophet may take at least half a decade. If you want to advance the medium again, this process requires more resources, time, skill, and finesse. In this work environment, you need to get things done at the right pace, or you risk sending the entire team into oblivion with few means of escape. This is exactly how massive delays and brutal periods of crunch happen over and over again.
The grounded documentary features several senior people at the studio touching on crunch culture with real empathy, and I don't doubt that they were trying to introduce procedures to prevent what happened in previous projects from resurfacing, but somehow, that seems to be exactly what's happening. You can't fight crunch culture if a studio continues to make games in the exact same way with the exact same expectations. Something has to give.
I have no doubt that Intergalactic is going to be an incredible game when it finally arrives in a couple of years, but I don't want it to be a product of the old crunch culture, which aims to facilitate burnout and destroy human life. No game is worth such a cost, even PlayStation exclusives like this one often promise the world and over deliver. If Naughty Dog really tried and failed to deal with Crunch only to surrender to its intense embrace, it needs to take a good, hard look at itself and ask if video games are worth such a huge price.
