Jason Schreier reported that Naughty Dog mandated overtime for developers working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. The studio also temporarily required staff to work five days per week in the office, up from the previous three-day hybrid schedule.
The push was to complete an internal playable demo milestone. According to the report, employees were required to work at least eight extra hours per week during this period. The overtime lasted roughly seven weeks before policies reverted back to normal schedules.
The demo was not intended for public viewing. Internal demos serve as quality checkpoints for studio leadership and publishers to evaluate if core gameplay works, whether the production pipeline can deliver at scale, and if release schedules remain realistic. These milestones often require intense polish that goes beyond normal development work.
Intergalactic is internally targeted for a mid-2027 release. The aggressive demo deadline comes despite the game being roughly two years from its planned launch window.
Naughty Dog has faced scrutiny over workplace practices before. The studio previously acknowledged crunch issues and attempted to address them by building out a larger producer team to better manage workload distribution. However, many of those producers later left the company.
The report also noted that the cancellation of The Last of Us Online after years of development may have contributed to scheduling pressure. That project’s cancellation affected staffing plans and milestone timelines across the studio.
First-party PlayStation studios face unique pressures tied to platform planning and fiscal targets. When a major exclusive slips or needs to prove viability, internal demos become high-stakes evaluations that can determine budget approvals and staffing decisions.
