Sony and Naughty Dog have reportedly reinstated the long-standing tradition of mandatory overtime in the video game industry. Employees at the Last Of Us and Uncharted developers have been working extra hours for the past seven weeks to complete an internal demo for their upcoming sci-fi action game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
According to a report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, team members at the Santa Monica-based studio have been required to work a minimum of eight additional hours per week since late October. In addition, Naughty Dog has mandated that employees work in the office five days a week, up from three, and track their overtime hours in an internal spreadsheet. Some staff have had to quickly arrange care for their children and pets as a result. Naughty Dog has set a limit of 60 hours per week for overtime work.
The overtime period is an effort to get Intergalactic back on schedule after facing several missed deadlines. The game is currently set for release on consoles in mid-2027. While Naughty Dog has a history of crunch, with some staff needing hospital care, this is the first time in recent years that overtime has been mandatory for most of the studio, according to the Bloomberg article.
Schreier notes that Naughty Dog introduced a team of producers in 2021 to help alleviate the workload on developers after the challenging development of The Last of Us: Part II. However, many of those producers have reportedly left, as per sources familiar with the situation.
Currently, most Naughty Dog employees have returned to regular working hours, with management announcing that employees will be able to work from home two days a week until the end of January. A detailed schedule for 2026 will be shared after the holiday break.
For those unfamiliar with Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, the game follows a stranded bounty hunter exploring the secrets of a forgotten planet. This marks Naughty Dog’s first original game in a while, indicating significant pressure from Sony to deliver successful results.
