The planned release date for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is revealed, and Naughty Dog forces developers to work crunch time
The company is reducing remote work and ordering employees to work at least 8 hours of overtime per week.
Naughty Dog’s track record in creative terms is brilliant: franchises such as Uncharted and The Last of Us have proven that the Santa Monica studio is one of the best when it comes to storytelling and offering experiences in this interactive medium. However, the shadow of suspicion is once again looming over PlayStation Studios. According to Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreir, the company led by Neil Druckmann has required employees to work overtime to speed up the development of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
The game does not yet have an official release date, but Naughty’s goal is to launch it in mid-2027, a date that, of course, may change depending on how development progresses.
At least eight hours of overtime per week
According to this information, Naughty Dog aimed to complete a demo for Sony to review the progress of the project. Last October, they asked employees to work at least eight hours of overtime per week, although they also asked them not to exceed sixty hours per week. This decision was made because the team failed to meet the deadline for several internal objectives.
During this period, the company has changed its teleworking policy. Until now, developers had to come into the office three days a week, but now they are going five days a week. This has meant that developers have had to find alternatives for looking after their children or pets.
In light of past difficulties, Naughty Dog hired producers to prevent or mitigate crunch, but several of them have left the company, so it seems that some bad habits never completely die out.
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Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is a new science fiction saga coming to PlayStation 5.
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