A new report claims that Naughty Dog staff were asked to clock overtime for the last seven weeks as the team wrapped up work on an upcoming Intergalactic demo for review by the parent company.
Intergalactic: The heretic prophet team pushed into crunch
The new report comes from Bloomberg, whose sources claim that staff working on Intergalactic were asked to begin working a minimum of eight extra hours a week and logging their overtime in an internal spreadsheet. The sources went on to claim that staff were also told to return to the office five days a week for this period, up from three previously. This crunch period was apparently an attempt to get the project back on schedule after a handful of missed deadlines.
The overtime window is apparently over now for most employees. The demo was finalized earlier this week and 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 the same sources, Naughty Dog plans to detail the 2026 schedule after the new year has arrived.
Naughty Dog’s history of Crunch
Although Naughty Dog is famous for producing some of the most thrilling single-player gaming experiences in recent console generations with The Last of Us and Uncharted franchises, the company also has a reputation for pushing employees far beyond standard work hours.
The studio’s culture problems were pushed into the spotlight during the development of The Last of Us Part II. A 2020 report by Jason Schreier detailed a “culture of crunch” where developers worked 12-hour days and weekends for months on end.
After the negative press surrounding the crunch culture, leadership at Naughty Dog made multiple statements about committing to quality of life improvements for the team. Now that the studio is once again working on a massive title, it will be very interesting to see whether or not leadership is able to stick to those promises or if the company slips back into a crunch mentality.
Everything we know about intergalactic so far
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet was announced just a year ago in December of 2024. The game is currently in development by Naughty Dog and aiming for a release on the PlayStation 5.
Naughty Dog has been working on the project since 2020, and claims that game is shaping up to be its wildest, most creative story yet. Details about the plot are still mostly a mystery, but we know that it focuses on Jordan A. Mun, a dangerous bounty hunter who ends up stranded on a distant planet whose communication with the outside universe went dark hundreds of years ago.
At this time, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet does not have a specific release window, though the same report indicated a mid-2027 release.
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