Former Naughty Dog designer Benson Russell has revealed how the studio eventually came to accept that extreme workplace crunch was essential to produce games like The Last of Us at their acclaimed quality level. Russell, who departed the Sony-owned studio in 2015 after eight years contributing to titles such as The Last of Us and Uncharted, shared his insights in a recent interview with Kiwi Talkz. A key topic was Naughty Dog's longstanding crunch culture, which Russell noted "only got worse" starting from Uncharted 1.
He explained that around the early 2010s, Naughty Dog's leadership attempted to address the issue by introducing guidelines to prevent employees from working past midnight. However, Russell stated, "When push came to shove, that midnight rule went right out the window." Following the release of The Last of Us, the studio openly acknowledged that crunch was a necessity to achieve their high standards and stopped trying to avoid it. Russell recalled, "Every meeting after that was always like, 'Hey, what are we going to do to try and mitigate crunch? How are we going to make this better?' And eventually it was just an admission in the meeting. 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.’ That was the answer."
Russell added, "The company runs the way it wants to run. You either want to be a part of it, or you don’t. They’re not technically breaking any laws, and it’s not like a requirement, it is a 'Hey, we really could use your help, please come here,’ and you’re incentivized to do it because your bonuses will be bigger." He also discussed retention rates at Naughty Dog, mentioning that "some people left" during Uncharted 4's development, and by the time of The Last of Us Part 2, "they really started leaving." Russell himself left in 2015, with Uncharted 4 launching the next year in 2016.
In the interview, Russell cited a lack of promotional opportunities as part of his reason for leaving, but crunch culture played a significant role too. He described instances of extended workdays and weekend shifts, sometimes involving "multiple months of seven-day weeks" and 12-to-14-hour days. "We had flex hours, where it's like, you had to be between this time and this time, minimum, so those are core hours so people can overlap, and then you manage that however you need to. The problem is crunch comes in, and then it's like, all bets are off," Russell said. "On The Last of Us, I had to drastically cut my crunch time down. I still put in a lot, right? I ramped it up over time, over the last year and a half or so, of the project."
Naughty Dog has been in the spotlight recently as fans eagerly anticipate its upcoming big-budget sci-fi adventure, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Sony is keenly aware of the excitement, with a Bloomberg report from late last year indicating that the company required employees at the studio to work at least eight extra hours weekly to meet an internal deadline. Meanwhile, speculation about The Last of Us Part 3 has emerged following a potential tease last month, and another hint from a team member has sparked rumors of a possible Uncharted 5 in development.
