A former Naughty Dog dev has revealed the studio sees crunch as a natural consequence of maintaining its level of quality. Crunch, a practice in which devs are either required or feel coerced to put in extreme hours to reach a certain deadline, has been a hot-button issue across the gaming industry for years, and it sadly doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. According to one insider, it's become so pervasive at Naughty Dog in particular because the company has accepted it as inevitable.
The Sony-owned studio behind Uncharted and The Last of Us is far from the only developer to make headlines for its mandatory overtime. However, it has become somewhat synonymous with the practice after multiple noteworthy instances. Most recently, it came out that the Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet team was already crunching, despite the game being over a year away from its anticipated release window. Now, someone who used to work for the studio and is familiar with its crunch philosophy has clarified why that may be the case.
A former Naughty Dog developer who was once working on a new Last of Us multiplayer game says it was practically complete before its...
