Naughty Dog might be one of the gaming industry's most illustrious developers at the moment, responsible for massive blockbusters like The Last of Us and Uncharted. But, those familiar with the studio's history will know that, throughout all the incredible games and prestige, Naughty Dog has a rather troubled history internally.
During the development of The Last of Us Part 2, several reports surfaced about brutal crunch happening at Naughty Dog due to the game's delay. It was claimed by former Naughty Dog animator Jonathan Cooper that the studio's gameplay animators were crunched so hard that they required "weeks of recovery" afterward, and that one person was even hospitalized. Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann addressed Naughty Dog's history of crunch in an interview with Game Informer, but a lot of questions remained unanswered.
Fast-forward five years, and it now sounds like Naughty Dog is back to its old tricks. In a new report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, it's claimed that the studio recently forced staff into mandatory overtime in order to finish an internal demo of its next game — Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet — that was due to be reviewed by its parent company this month. This overtime...
