Former Naughty Dog Dev Recalls Crunch Culture for Games Like The Last of Us and Uncharted
Former Naughty Dog designer Benson Russell has revealed how the acclaimed Sony studio has embraced workplace crunch as a necessary part of their development process. Russell, who spent eight years at Naughty Dog developing games like The Last of Us and Uncharted before leaving in 2015, explained that the studio’s crunch culture has been endemic since the original Uncharted game.
While Naughty Dog leadership attempted to address the issue in the early 2010s by implementing guidelines preventing employees from working past midnight, these measures ultimately proved ineffective. According to Russell, when project deadlines approached, the studio abandoned these guidelines and returned to extended working hours.
Most significantly, Russell indicated that after The Last of Us’s release, Naughty Dog essentially accepted crunch as an inevitable aspect of creating games at their quality level. Rather than continuing efforts to prevent excessive hours, leadership gave up fighting crunch, viewing it as necessary to achieve their ambitious creative vision.
This revelation underscores a persistent problem in the video game industry where crunch culture remains endemic despite documented negative impacts on developer health and wellbeing. Naughty Dog’s reputation as one of the worst offenders for workplace crunch is now corroborated by insider testimony from someone who experienced it firsthand over nearly a decade.