Crunch remains a rampant problem in the industry, as a tonic to studios big and small needing to hit their release schedules. Naughty Dog is no exception, and after numerous massive games like Uncharted and The Last of Us, the company views overworking as something of a given, according to a former dev.
After reports circulated of crunch on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet this past December, Benson Russell, former senior game designer at Naughty Dog, provided some insight on the Kiwi Talkz podcast about how the studio views crunching. "They'll set internal deadlines, and treat them like actual, external deadlines," he explains.
"It's at that point you realize, you've wandered too much," he continues, "and it could be Sony tapping them on the shoulder, being like, 'Hey guys, it's been three years, not seeing much from you, we've spent I don't know how much money already, what's going on?'"
After The Last Of Us shipped, Naughty Dog made the admission that crunch is a requirement to make games at the level they make them and they would no longer even attempt to shy away from it.That's why crunch has progressively gotten worse with every project since and that's why… pic.twitter.com/Ge8TVdwcQvApril 13, 2026
This, then, turns everything into a pressurized situation where, as far as leadership are concerned, overtime becomes inevitable. "It was just an admission in a [meeting after The Last of Us], 'Well, we've come to realize this is what it takes to make games at our level," Russell remembers.
"'If you don't want to do that, we understand, we'll write you a great letter of recommendation,'" he says. "The company runs the way it wants to run, you either want to be a part of it or you don't, they're not technically breaking any laws."
These were the conversations on the back of The Last of Us, in 2013, and you can bet not a huge amount has changed since. This means that right now, employees at the outfit are currently putting in long shifts to get through Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, as well as whatever else is on the drawing board.
The industry can and should be better, but from what Russell says, Naughty Dog probably won't be leading the charge for change in this department.
