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

I can understand mandatory overtime and crunch when a game is nearing completion. But to require it for an internal demo is diabolical or it's proof that there's a lot of people fucking around in ND and not doing their jobs. Or both.
Well, they haven't put out a new game since 2020 so...
 
Good. My team has to work 10 hours all the time. Because there's a lot of fucking work to do. And we need our jobs. Welcome to the world.
 
Yes i'll keep thinking about facts. You can keep thinking about the imaginary 5M extra needed for the game to be a hit.
It was a "hit," certainly, just not as big as it was supposed to be, thus underperforming....Not rocket science.

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👆This didn't come out of the blue, buddy
 
Some employees in other professions would jump at the chance for overtime, but in Western gaming studios it's evil aids.

Someone needs to do an investigative report on Schrier and see if he's the pathetic grub most of us think he is.
 
And there we go. "Drama" over. Like even Schreier says the obvious part out loud here but you've got tons of people on the same purple forum playing armchair virtue signalers, when their whole lives & identities revolve around consuming mass-produced corporate products...
Well, yes but also not really. Naughty Dog, like many Western devs, maintains the ability to alter mandatory working hours in their contracts. For TLOUP2, for example, the company was on mandated overtime for well over an entire year (rumours are that it was actually two years, but I've never seen that corroborated). When you look back at ye olde dev houses, like id Software's infamous 20 hour days on Doom, Doom 2, and Quake, it was because the devs were also the owners of the company, and everyone else was getting profit shares. They put in the work because they were getting something out of it - and in my examples, we're talking literally millions. A lot of modern Dev contracts don't have those kinds of profit shares, and some don't even increase pay based on hours - you get your salary, regardless of the hours, and the company will give you one free meals a day when on mandatory overtime. Forcing people to work 80 hour minimum weeks for 52 weeks straight so some fucknut can keep their bonus if the game launches on time is pretty shitty, frankly.
 
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uh? I dont think that is as relevant as ND not releasing anything yet. (and of course, Yotei and DS2 bombing across the board; It's not a question of quantity but losing impact and relevancy. )

I wonder if Neil (who has a lot of power) is going to remain at ND/Sony after this game finally launches.

He pooped The Last of Us IP
I can't see ND doing 10 years of "Intergalactic" games.

The ND identity that Neil helped build and establish across Sony games has run its course

Yotei absolutely did not bomb lol. The only games that beat it this year were mega franchises like Battlefield, 2K, etc.

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This is despite releasing late in the year and it had a relatively modest budget by AAA standards. Massive success for Sucker Punch by literally any metric.
 
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I still remember seeing a behind the scenes from Polyphony many years ago where they had beds under they desks. This soyboys, on normal days, only have to appear in the studio 3 days a week? Yeah, no surprise games are taking longer to make and have to crunch when reaching deadlines.
 
... This is despite releasing late in the year and it had a relatively modest budget by AAA standards. Massive success for Sucker Punch by literally any metric.
I've seen that "Yotei bombed!" non-sense around, but I don't know where it comes from. The marketing team did that game dirty, because by all accounts I've seen, it's a pretty good game. Not going to set the world on fire, but Sucker Punch did well with it.
 
I've seen that "Yotei bombed!" non-sense around, but I don't know where it comes from. The marketing team did that game dirty, because by all accounts I've seen, it's a pretty good game. Not going to set the world on fire, but Sucker Punch did well with it.

Yeah, the marketing was shit. The game looked so much better than any of their promos. No idea what they were thinking.

The game is in the top 10 sold YTD from Circana so any claim that it "flopped" is just hyperbole.
 
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My son in-law works on a farm and is currently doing harvest and working 16 to 17 hours a day 7 days a week. Granted it is only like this for about 6 weeks of the year. Some of these people are babies. Widdle widdle babies.
 
It also prevents moonlighting. Who knows how often that happens with WFH people, but 15-20 years ago I already experienced that from remote people. Cant get hold of this guy until he'd reply later in the week. The chances of this guy answering your email fast or picking up the phone was so slim it made no sense as he was a sales guy with a small account to begin with. If anything he should have lots of time.

Turns out the guy built decks and did landscaping kind of stuff on the side. No wonder everyone here at head office could barely get hold of him. Word got out after he left the company as his fellow regional WFH account managers spilled the beans and laughed about it. So they knew. But nobody at head office did. Didnt matter about the manager whether he knew or not as he already retired. He probably knew too as that WFH team were really chummy with each other including the regional boss.

You cant build decks and plant grass same time working at the office. But for coder kinds of roles, some of them probably moonlight doing side gigs or social media at home. Who knows.
There is nothing wrong with moonlighting, and where I live it's protected by law that your employer can't prevent it. But again, moonlighting (daylighting?) in this case is essentially stealing from the company because he was supposed to be working and wasn't. All these scenarios seem pretty cut and dry to me. It's real simple. Don't steal, don't lie. Do your job. It's sad some adults even need to be told this.
 
Yotei absolutely did not bomb lol. The only games that beat it this year were mega franchises like Battlefield, 2K, etc.
This is despite releasing late in the year and it had a relatively modest budget by AAA standards. Massive success for Sucker Punch by literally any metric.
It bombed across the board; generally speaking. It got crushed.
 
It bombed across the board; generally speaking. It got crushed.
Well "bombed" is a hold-over term from box office numbers. A movie bombs when it posts exceptionally low numbers; usually enough to declare the movie a financial failure (didn't make it's budget). Yotei isn't tail gaiting BF6, but it's numbers seem respectable?
 
Well "bombed" is a hold-over term from box office numbers. A movie bombs when it posts exceptionally low numbers; usually enough to declare the movie a financial failure (didn't make it's budget). Yotei isn't tail gaiting BF6, but it's numbers seem respectable?
uh?
bombing across the board; It's not a question of quantity but losing impact and relevancy
bombed/flopped...whatever.

They "made their money back." But did they really, when the game loses relevance and impact, and fails to elevate the success of the IP?
 
:pie_eyeroll:...🤷‍♂️

That game will be forgotten faster than Remember Me. ZERO awards at TGA, unlike Ghost of Tsushima...It bombed so hard that leadership at Sucker Punch faced consequences.

I don't think you know what "bomb" means. It has nothing to do with your subjective view of how relevant something is culturally or whatever. It strictly refers to financial success. And Yotei is objectively NOT a bomb as the chart shows. It's a top 10 selling game of the year, mixed in with sales behemoths from legacy franchises.
 
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Feels like crunch is part of Naughty Dog's DNA at this point. They cleanly can't function without it, for better or worse.
 
First: I find it hard to be that sympathetic considering the job market sucks right now, you're making well above what most people make working a dream job and all that's happening is you have to work 60 hours a week and actually come into the office for a month and half. That's not that crazy. But maybe I'm missing something here.

Second: how fucking far behind are these guys? How long is this game going to take? For a goddamn demo? This seems like it's been SEVERELY mismanaged - this is obviously a cross gen ps6 game at this point Naughty Dog missed an entire generation
 
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The number of boomer takes in this thread is hilarious.

Big "YOU GOT SOFT HANDS" energy.

Factions 2 (which got cancelled)

I assume they have two teams. The other is doing what is basically TLOU 3. But that's way way far off.
So one team worked on Factions, while the other was on Intergalactic, then the Factions team went on to work on what we assume to be TLOU3? I guess it makes sense.

A fun thing to do is compare Insomniac and ND's output this gen (through next year)

Insomniac
  • Spider Man Remastered
  • Spider Man: Miles Morales
  • Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
  • Spider Man 2
  • Wolverine
  • Ratchet and Clank 60 fps patch
Naughty Dog
  • The Last of Us Part II 60 fps patch
  • The Last of Us Part I (Wasn't this started somewhere else?)
  • The Last of Us Part II Remastered
  • Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
How can you look at this and not see a clear problem?
 
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This is goal post moving bullshit based on nothing more than personal feelings.
They "made their money back." But did they really, when the game loses relevance and impact, and fails to elevate the success of the IP?
The Rock Eye Roll GIF by WWE

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


Uh?..... You understand that Sony is not only spending money on this game, right? They are INVESTING in the future of this NEW IP too. tech/code/system-mechanics etc..

What you call "goal post moving" is, in fact, very relevant: Anthem, Days Gone, Concord, Drive Club, The Order 1886, Redfall, to name a few.

We have games that "Bombed" so hard "across the board" that killed the IP and even the studio....Yotei is in that list, too, now (killed the IP). 🤷‍♂️ I'm sorry if that triggers you, but it's true. (Days Gone will probably remain with higher total sales than Yotei, btw.)

So, in the context of the conversation I was having with the other user:

Sony and Naughty Dog are not at the stage of "BioWare Magic" or "Bungie Sauce," or whatever you want to call it. Naughty Dog can't play the "we are the Naughty Gods" card anymore (intergalactic trailer reception made that clear). And PlayStation´s "Cinematic Formula" is losing its luster; graphics will not "save" a game like Intergalactic, even if it "makes its money back". This could very well be the only game released from this IP and Druckman's last game at ND/Sony.
 
They "made their money back." But did they really, when the game loses relevance and impact, and fails to elevate the success of the IP?
The Rock Eye Roll GIF by WWE

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


Uh?..... You understand that Sony is not only spending money on this game, right? They are INVESTING in the future of this NEW IP too. tech/code/system-mechanics etc..

What you call "goal post moving" is, in fact, very relevant: Anthem, Days Gone, Concord, Drive Club, The Order 1886, Redfall, to name a few.

We have games that "Bombed" so hard "across the board" that killed the IP and even the studio....Yotei is in that list, too, now (killed the IP). 🤷‍♂️ I'm sorry if that triggers you, but it's true. (Days Gone will probably remain with higher total sales than Yotei, btw.)

So, in the context of the conversation I was having with the other user:

Sony and Naughty Dog are not at the stage of "BioWare Magic" or "Bungie Sauce," or whatever you want to call it. Naughty Dog can't play the "we are the Naughty Gods" card anymore (intergalactic trailer reception made that clear). And PlayStation´s "Cinematic Formula" is losing its luster; graphics will not "save" a game like Intergalactic, even if it "makes its money back". This could very well be the only game released from this IP and Druckman's last game at ND/Sony.

Lots of feelings and opinions here. No data.
 
Fucking hell, most fields outside gaming have overtime, I've done a shitload of it in my life. This is not news. This is always Schreir's fucking butter milking. Nobody cares.
 
Of course that purple forum is having a cow over this. Wow the employees were asked to work 8 extra hours during the week. That's like 2 hours a day big deal. I work almost 60 hours a week at my job every week and would gladly do more if I could.
That idiot PlanetSmasher is throwing a fit. 😂
 
This woke trash will Flop hard

I did th laughing emoji because I'm laughing with you (not at you) on this.

But even we both laugh at the game, I don't think it's gonna flop. It will still sell a lot cuz of ND but maybe be not as much as TLOU but we shall see
 
I'm sure you said the same thing about Ghost of Yotei. 😂
I have a feeling it may not be as successful as Last of Us and Uncharted either. The character is highly offensive to some people (myself included). I likely won't play the game because of THAT being the main character.
 
What a waste of time to crunch for some internal demo. Lots of stuff will be scrapped from that demo again to actually make the game.

And if they use the demo for marketing purposes everyone will scream 'downgrades!' when they see the actual game.
 
ND have been wack, I'm sure the game will be good once it's released but they've been one of the worst studios this gen. The awful management thing seems to be a key with all these Sony studios, absolutely incompetent.
 
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