Naughty Dog is one of the staples in PlayStation’s long history of games. It made a name for itself with hit titles from the 2000s like Crash Bandicoot and the Jak and Daxter series. But it wasn’t until the release of The Last of Us that the developer was truly appreciated, earning hundreds of rewards. Now, the legendary game studio is making a statement about treating its’ workers fairly.
In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann discussed how he and his team will be working to avoid crunch culture in the future. “We did announce Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us Part 2 way in advance, but that actually caused a little bit of the work-life balance issues that we’ve sometimes had at the studio,” Druckmann said.
Because Naughty Dog announced the games up to four years before their launch, there was likely a building pressure inside the studio as they got closer to release. This would obviously make it harder to make sure everything in the game is top quality when your main focus is meeting a deadline that has been in place for years.
To alleviate this, Druckmann said, “by delaying that announcement a bit, we could play with the schedule more and we’re more conscious now about how we’re approaching production.” This ultimately means that without a date that’s set in stone, the developers will have much more freedom in what and how they pursue the development of the game.
Druckmann then went on to discuss the current The Last of Us multiplayer title, which should see more information released later this year, and an unannounced project that he wouldn’t disclose. If the studio is waiting until closer to release to officially announce games, then it could be that this news about the multiplayer game could be more than we were anticipating.
But we’ll just have to wait until later this summer or beyond to hear what’s in store next for Naughty Dog and The Last of Us.
