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Jason Schreier: Naughty Dog enacts mandatory overtime for staff in order to finish Integalactic internal demo

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Wastelander92

Member
Employees at Sony Group Corp.'s Naughty Dog studio 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.

For the past seven weeks, the Santa Monica-based studio behind The Last of Us has been pushing its staff to work long hours to get ready for an upcoming review of the demo by its parent company, according to people familiar with the situation. Starting in late October, staff were asked to begin working a minimum of eight extra hours a week and logging their overtime in an internal spreadsheet, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. This overtime period was an attempt to get the production back on track after several missed deadlines.
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The employees were instructed not to work more than 60 hours a week. Staff were also told to return to the office five days a week for this period, up from three previously, sending some employees scrambling to find alternative care arrangements for children and pets. Representatives for Sony and Naughty Dog declined to comment.

Excessive overtime, also called crunch, had long been commonplace in the video-game industry thanks to the unpredictability of game development. But in recent years, following blowback from workers and in the media, many companies have tried to mitigate such practices.
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Naughty Dog, one of the most-respected gamemakers thanks to hit franchises like Uncharted and The Last of Us, has earned a reputation over the years for its binge-working culture. In 2021, after facing burnout and some attrition among its workers following the release of The Last of Us: Part II , Naughty Dog began building a new team of producers charged, in part, with alleviating the overload of work on upcoming projects. But many of those producers have since left the company, according to the people familiar with the situation.

Some teams at Naughty Dog worked long hours to finish the game's debut trailer, which was released last December. But this is the first time in recent years that overtime has been mandated across the bulk of the studio. The game is slated for release in mid-2027, according to the people familiar with the schedule, leaving some employees wondering if the overtime requirements will get worse later in the development cycle.
Click to expand...

For most staff, the recent period of mandated overtime ended this week as Naughty Dog finalized the demo. Management told employees that the company will return to its standard requirement of three days in the office each week through the end of January, according to people familiar with the communications. The company said it plans to provide a more detailed schedule for 2026 after the holiday break.

Earlier this year, members of the production team were each given customized metal coins that seemed to capture, purposefully or not, the current state of the studio's workplace attitude. On one side was the company's paw-print logo. On the other, a quote from the trailer for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet: "The suffering of generations must be endured to achieve our divine end."
Click to expand...

Source - Bloomberg (Jason Schreier)
 
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drama GIF
 
I wish Retro would have had mandatory overtime so Prime 4 could have been good.
 
See, back in the day I'd understand. Being in software development myself, I've had 4 months of crunch recently, working till midnight almost every night, and it's a horrible time, truly.
(but because of poor management, thank goodness i've been moved to a different and frankly more important project)

But how much of this crunch now is because of all their blue hairs are taking mental health days, fighting the chuds on twitter, and work simply isn't being completed on time.

Old weenie boy will also fails to mention that these west coast crazies are being paid absolute trucks of money.
 
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Ohh noooooooo. Being expected to work at a place you're being paid to do so. THE HORROR!! CALL THE FBI AND PRESS CHARGES!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE WANT A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION RIGHT NOW!!!!


im-calling-the-police-randy-marsh.gif


report-calling-the-police.gif
 
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Obviously Naughty Dog and every Sony studio needs to unionize so they can go on strike over this. Workers rights are human rights.
 
Kacho said:
Can you post some of the article at least? I'm not paying for that shit.
Click to expand...

Employees at Sony Group Corp.'s Naughty Dog studio 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.

For the past seven weeks, the Santa Monica-based studio behind The Last of Us has been pushing its staff to work long hours to get ready for an upcoming review of the demo by its parent company, according to people familiar with the situation. Starting in late October, staff were asked to begin working a minimum of eight extra hours a week and logging their overtime in an internal spreadsheet, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. This overtime period was an attempt to get the production back on track after several missed deadlines.

The employees were instructed not to work more than 60 hours a week. Staff were also told to return to the office five days a week for this period, up from three previously, sending some employees scrambling to find alternative care arrangements for children and pets. Representatives for Sony and Naughty Dog declined to comment.

Excessive overtime, also called crunch, had long been commonplace in the video-game industry thanks to the unpredictability of game development. But in recent years, following blowback from workers and in the media, many companies have tried to mitigate such practices.
http://bloomberg.com/subscriptions/technewsletters
Naughty Dog, one of the most-respected gamemakers thanks to hit franchises like Uncharted and The Last of Us, has earned a reputation over the years for its binge-working culture. In 2021, after facing burnout and some attrition among its workers following the release of The Last of Us: Part II , Naughty Dog began building a new team of producers charged, in part, with alleviating the overload of work on upcoming projects. But many of those producers have since left the company, according to the people familiar with the situation.

Some teams at Naughty Dog worked long hours to finish the game's debut trailer, which was released last December. But this is the first time in recent years that overtime has been mandated across the bulk of the studio. The game is slated for release in mid-2027, according to the people familiar with the schedule, leaving some employees wondering if the overtime requirements will get worse later in the development cycle.

For most staff, the recent period of mandated overtime ended this week as Naughty Dog finalized the demo. Management told employees that the company will return to its standard requirement of three days in the office each week through the end of January, according to people familiar with the communications. The company said it plans to provide a more detailed schedule for 2026 after the holiday break.

Earlier this year, members of the production team were each given customized metal coins that seemed to capture, purposefully or not, the current state of the studio's workplace attitude. On one side was the company's paw-print logo. On the other, a quote from the trailer for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet: "The suffering of generations must be endured to achieve our divine end."
Click to expand...
 
Why is it that Naughty Dog gets a free pass, but if any other company did this, Schrier and other scumsucking gaming "journalists" would be writing articles on how terrible crunch is?
 
I work with Finance, and I've been working overtime until 11 pm for the past couple of weeks to deliver November's account closing. Something that I have to do monthly. With no rewards at all. No million of peoples experiencing what I've created, or discussing it online, no TGA prizes, nothing.

But people working in the next game of one of gaming's most prestigious developers can't work overtime?

Seriously

Schreier must "work" 5h per week in order to have such fragile world views.
 
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Luipadre said:
Sony finally wants to see some progress? tlou 2 was like what, 5 years ago? These sony studios are so poorly managed its incredible.
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Druckman was too busy failing in Hollywood until he had to come crawling back to games.

Anyway, to each their own, no way I'd waste 60 hrs/week of my life working though.
 
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mckmas8808 said:
So what's the FREAKING PROBLEM!?!?!
Click to expand...

Besides spelling Schreier's name wrong in the title? lol minor /s

In any event, the title of the thread could have been named better. I also believe Naughty Dog claimed that they worked better at their practice by mitigating crunch time. Could be wrong on this though.

EDIT: In 2024, ND did make it a formal goal to eliminate crunch entirely. But seems to not be the case now or whatever.
 
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They have to produce a result within a time limit, that's atrociuos! How can this snowflakes developers survive to this slavery???
 
Kacho said:
Can you post some of the article at least? I'm not paying for that shit.
Click to expand...

SlimySnake said:
Retarded OP. At least post some excerpts from the article. its not free and there is zero info in the OP to discuss.
Click to expand...
Found some text on Reddit. W Wastelander92 might want to add to OP.

Employees at Sony Group Corp.'s Naughty Dog studio 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.
Click to expand...
For the past seven weeks, the Santa Monica-based studio behind The Last of Us has been pushing its staff to work long hours to get ready for an upcoming review of the demo by its parent company, according to people familiar with the situation. Starting in late October, staff were asked to begin working a minimum of eight extra hours a week and logging their overtime in an internal spreadsheet, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. This overtime period was an attempt to get the production back on track after several missed deadlines.
Click to expand...
The employees were instructed not to work more than 60 hours a week. Staff were also told to return to the office five days a week for this period, up from three previously, sending some employees scrambling to find alternative care arrangements for children and pets. Representatives for Sony and Naughty Dog declined to comment.
Click to expand...
Some teams at Naughty Dog worked long hours to finish the game's debut trailer, which was released last December. But this is the first time in recent years that overtime has been mandated across the bulk of the studio. The game is slated for release in mid-2027, according to the people familiar with the schedule, leaving some employees wondering if the overtime requirements will get worse later in the development cycle.
Click to expand...
For most staff, the recent period of mandated overtime ended this week as Naughty Dog finalized the demo. Management told employees that the company will return to its standard requirement of three days in the office each week through the end of January, according to people familiar with the communications. The company said it plans to provide a more detailed schedule for 2026 after the holiday break.
Click to expand...
 
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