Naughty Dog Employees Allegedly Ordered to Work Mandatory Overtime

According to a recent report, Naughty Dog has been requiring its employees to put in 'mandatory' overtime as the company rushes to complete the Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet demo. Bloomberg states that staff members were expected to work a minimum of eight extra hours per week, with a maximum of 60 hours per week. This mandatory overtime period allegedly lasted for seven weeks, concluding this week. Additionally, developers were instructed to work from the office five days a week, up from the usual three days, which disrupted their typical childcare and pet care routines. However, management has reportedly assured employees that the work schedule will revert to three days a week in January. As stated by Bloomberg, '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.' This overtime was allegedly implemented in an effort to get the production back on track after missing several deadlines. Sony and Naughty Dog have declined to comment on these claims. The issue of crunch time has been a topic of discussion in recent years, and Naughty Dog's stance on mandatory overtime has faced scrutiny, including in 2021 when the studio's then co-president Evan Wells discussed his personal experience with crunch, saying, 'I have definitely personally worked very hard over the years. I think some of that has helped me get to where I am in my career.'