Crunch, the prolonged periods of overwork and stress, seems to happen with every AAA title, The Last of Us Part II, so Naughty Dog‘s team has experienced it with this game, too.

Kotaku’s Jason Schreier‘s report shed light on the situation of Naughty Dog, revealing a few things via a few employees. Previously, we heard that the PlayStation 4-exclusive The Last Of Us Part II would come in February (that was the first publicly announced date) before it was delayed to late May (May 29), and the crunch, which happened regardless, came „at a huge cost to the people,” one anonymous employee said.

Schreier talked with thirteen employees to have a clear overview of the damages the crunch has caused to the studio. He noted that the studio lost over 70% of its non-lead designers and developers from the Uncharted 4 team, causing a significant reduction in senior roles, and the management positions were filled by less-experienced people.

„This [crunch] can’t be something that’s continuing over and over for each game, because it is unsustainable. At a certain point, you realize, ‘I can’t keep doing this. I’m getting older. I can’t stay and work all night.’,” one anonymous employee said about the crunch. „People thinking the extension is somehow to relieve stress or the workload on the team are wrong,” another developer added in regards to the three-month delay on the game. At this point, we have to ask: what’s the price of making quality games? How many lives will be thrashed for a shorter or longer period by the 10+-hour working days? (The fact that the devs have to talk anonymously about the situation doesn’t help things either – otherwise, they’d get threats or get fired altogether.)

Crunch is still unavoidable in game development, and we don’t see if it’s ever going to change. Overworking employees never, ever lead to good results.

Source: DualShockers

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