Naughty Dog's 'mandatory overtime' for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet shocks gamers

Naughty Dog has reportedly enforced mandatory overtime among its staff to get an internal demo of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet ready as a number of key deadlines have already been missed and gamers on social media have been left shocked.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is a brand new IP from studio Naughty Dog which has developed The Last of Us, Uncharted and Crash Bandicoot.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports: "Employees at Naughty Dog are working mandatory overtime to finish a demo for their next video game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, reviving an infamous workplace tradition that is increasingly frowned upon across the industry."

The "tradition" Schreier is referring to here is crunch, a term used for mandatory and intense overtime where developers have to work additional hours to meet strict deadlines which can lead to burnout and higher stress levels among staff.

It usually happens in the run up to a game releasing - but Intergalactic currently has no official release date (although Schreier reports the aim is "mid-2027") and this is all to get an internal demo ready.

Schreier adds this has been in effect for seven weeks at the time of writing and has ended for most workers, it has been "an attempt to get the production back on track after several missed deadlines" and workers were told to work no more than 60 hours each week.

This was reposted into the GamingLeaksAndRumours Subreddit and gamers have been left shocked in the comments.

"Management disaster, can't put out a new game in six years and still have to crunch just to get it playable," one said. "They really need to take a hard look at Insomniac's software pipeline and improve their own."

A second commented: "Highly recommend The Last of Us: Part II Grounded documentary. Demos are a big deal to them, entertaining watch, but I'm sure it sucks being in their shoes when crunching."

A third posted: "Crunch for a video game anyway is madness but crunch for an internal demo is absolutely insane."

"So are AAA working conditions just fundamentally f*****?" asked a fourth.

And a fifth agreed: "Almost six years into development and working overtime 18 months before release smh. AAA game industry is so bloated and inefficient now."

indy100 has contacted Sony Interactive Entertainment, the owners of Naughty Dog, for further comment.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet release date revealed - and it's not good news
• The Last of Us actor teases Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet details

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