Crunch returns to Naughty Dog for Xmas as Intergalactic devs work overtime on a demo for Sony, claims report

Staff allegedly required to enactment astatine slightest 8 other hours a week

Sony and Naughty Dog look to person brought backmost the festive videogame manufacture contented of mandatory overtime. According to reports, the Last Of Us and Uncharted developers person been crunching for the past 7 weeks to decorativeness an interior demo for their caller sci-fi enactment crippled Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

The study successful question is from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier (paywall), who claims that squad members astatine the Santa Monica-based workplace person been asked to enactment a minimum of 8 other hours a week since precocious October. To enforce this, Naughty Dog person besides allegedly required unit to enactment successful bureau 5 days a week - up from 3 - logging their overtime successful an interior spreadsheet. Some unit person had to marque hasty short-term attraction arrangements for children and pets. Naughty Dog have, astatine least, told unit not to enactment much than 60 hours a week.

This overtime play is seemingly an effort to get Intergalactic backmost connected way aft respective missed deadlines, with the crippled presently slated for console merchandise successful mid-2027. Naughty Dog person agelong had a estimation for crunch, with unit sometimes needing infirmary attraction arsenic a result, but the Bloomberg portion says that this is the archetypal clip successful “recent years” that overtime has been mandated crossed the “bulk” of the studio.

Schreier writes that Naughty Dog introduced a squad of producers successful 2021 who were tasked with lessening the load connected developers (among different responsibilities), pursuing the gruelling improvement of The Last of Us: Part II. According to “people acquainted with the situation”, however, galore of those producers are present gone.

As of this week, astir Naughty Dog unit are reportedly present backmost connected mean hours, and absorption person said that radical volition erstwhile again beryllium capable to enactment 2 weekdays astatine location done the extremity of January, with a much elaborate moving docket for 2026 to beryllium presented aft the vacation break.

If you’re caller to Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, it’s astir a stranded bounty huntsman investigating the mysteries of a forgotten planet. It’s Naughty Dog’s archetypal non-sequel videogame successful a while, which suggests that determination volition beryllium a batch of unit from Sony to present results.