Naughty Dog Embraced Crunch Culture After The Last of Us, as It’s ‘What It Takes to Make Games at Our Level’

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Naughty Dog, a key game development studio for Sony, has a reputation for demanding long working hours, especially when finishing a game.

Long work hours, often called ‘crunch,’ are common in the video game industry, but Naughty Dog has a particularly bad reputation. This is largely because they seem to have stopped actively trying to prevent it.

This information comes from Benson Russell, who previously worked on games like Uncharted and the first The Last of Us.

Speaking in an interview on KiwiTalkz, Russell discusses Naughty Dog’s approach to crunch.

He explained that the studio began demanding excessive overtime after the first Uncharted game, and even though leaders tried to stop it, they eventually resigned themselves to it becoming a normal part of how the company operated.

According to Russell, after finishing The Last of Us, the company acknowledged the intense workload required for their high-quality games. They told employees that if they weren’t willing to commit to that level of effort, they understood and would provide a strong letter of recommendation.

The company operates according to its own principles. You’re either on board with that approach or you’re not, and everything they’re doing is legally sound, he added.

Russell explains that while Naughty Dog doesn’t require employees to work overtime, they are rewarded for doing so through bonuses, which are tied to how much effort they put in.

Reports indicate the team working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet has been working excessive hours to catch up after missing several internal milestones.

Russell mentioned earlier that Naughty Dog operates with strict internal deadlines, treating them as if they were imposed by outside sources.

He explained that’s when developers realize they’ve stretched a project too far. It might lead to Sony questioning the lack of progress after significant investment, asking what’s causing the delay after three years.

As a fan, it’s a little disheartening to hear the studio seems to be doubling down on crunch – those long hours everyone dreads – to get their games made. We had a feeling this might be happening, but it’s still tough to see confirmed. It just feels like they’re openly accepting it as part of the process, and honestly, it doesn’t sit right with me.

We don’t have a release date for Intergalactic yet, but it’s likely to be more than a year away.

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2026-04-13 17:37