A former designer at Naughty Dog has revealed how the studio abandoned its initial efforts to control work hours and eventually embraced crunch as fundamental to making games at its caliber. Benson Russell spent eight years at the Sony studio before departing in 2015, working on franchises including The Last of Us and Uncharted.
In a recent interview, Russell traced the evolution of workplace culture at Naughty Dog from the original Uncharted onward. Leadership attempted to impose structure in the early 2010s, instituting a midnight cutoff for work hours. The policy proved ineffective when real deadlines approached.
"When push came to shove, that midnight rule went right out the window," Russell explained. The turning point came after The Last of Us shipped. Rather than redouble efforts to manage hours, Naughty Dog executives made an explicit shift in philosophy during team meetings.
"Eventually it was just an admission in the meeting," Russell recalled. "It was like, 'Well, we've just come to realize this is what it takes to make games at our level, and we understand, if you don't want to do that, that's fine. We understand. We'll write you a great letter of recommendation.'"
The studio stopped treating excessive hours as a problem to solve and started treating them as a condition of employment. Participation remained technically voluntary but carried real incentives, with larger bonuses tied to the extended commitment. Russell described the pitch as: "Hey, we really could use your help, please come here, and you're incentivized to do it because your bonuses will be bigger."
The human cost became visible in staffing. Some developers left during Uncharted 4's production. The exodus accelerated around the time of The Last of Us Part 2. Russell himself cited both the crunch culture and a lack of promotional opportunity as reasons for his 2015 exit.
During his final years at Naughty Dog, Russell experienced stretches of seven-day workweeks spanning multiple months, with shifts running 12 to 14 hours. Even with flexible scheduling policies on paper, overtime engulfed normal routines when projects demanded it. On The Last of Us specifically, Russell said he eventually ramped up his hours significantly over the final year and a half of development, despite initially trying to limit his exposure to the worst of it.
The studio faces renewed scrutiny over working conditions as it develops Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, an upcoming big-budget sci-fi title. Bloomberg reported late last year that Sony required Naughty Dog employees to work a minimum of eight additional hours weekly to meet internal deadlines for the project.
Speculation continues around potential future projects, with hints of The Last of Us Part 3 and Uncharted 5 in development, though nothing has been officially confirmed.
Author Emily Chen: "Russell's account shows how institutional acceptance of crunch becomes self-perpetuating, especially when a studio ties it to quality and identity."
Comments