According to a recent report, Naughty Dog’s upcoming new IP, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, appears to be following a similar trend that the PlayStation studio has been criticized for in the past, even though the game isn’t scheduled to release until 2027. The term “crunch” often is used to describe working conditions in the gaming industry where developers and other studio members are often forced to work overtime over long periods in order to make sure a game is ready to launch by a certain date.
One of the more anticipated titles is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, a brand-new IP from the makers of the Uncharted and Last of Us series. So far, fans have only gotten a glimpse at the game from its reveal trailer, and unfortunately, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet did not attend the 2025 Game Awards to give fans a new look. While fans continue to wait for news, the latest report paints things in a not so great light.
Naughty Dog’s New Game Intergalactic Gets Encouraging Update
Naughty Dog’s next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, receives a promising update that has many fans extremely excited.
Naughty Dog Worked Overtime for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet
NEW: For the last seven weeks, Naughty Dog has enacted mandatory overtime for staff to finish an internal demo of their next game, Intergalactic. The game won’t be out until 2027, leaving some staff wondering: If they’re crunching now, what will next year be like? www.bloomberg.com/news/article…
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) 2025-12-18T19:21:36.348Z
According to gaming industry reporter Jason Schreier, Naughty Dog has ordered mandatory overtime at the studio in order for developers and staff to wrap up work on an internal demo. In fact, the studio crunch has been in effect for about 7 weeks at this point, a worrying amount of time for a game still early on in development. Schreier revealed that Intergalactic had missed a number of deadlines already, so in an effort to increase production, employees were asked to work an extra eight hours or more per week and log the time in an internal spreadsheet.
While both Sony and Naughty Dog declined to provide a comment for the post, sources indicated that employees were not supposed to go over 60 hours per week, though they needed to be in the office for the full 5 work days instead of the normal 3. The added work is largely due to an upcoming review from Sony and with the internal demo now finalized, the mandatory overtime has since been ended for most staff members. Still, Schreier indicates that this was the first time in a while that mandatory overtime had to be issued across the company.
What makes this news so surprising is that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is a game that many aren’t expecting to launch until 2027 at the earliest. In most cases, studios that have to crunch typically do so by the end of the project’s development cycle, typically to hit a specific launch date on time. Considering Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet doesn’t have a specific release date and still has a long ways to go, and there are worries that if this is happening now, could things get even worse next year?
Unfortunately, Naughty Dog has an established track record of employee crunch, with reports of burnout and attrition impacting employees after The Last of Us: Part 2 launched. To mitigate the development issues and in an attempt to ease the need for crunch, Naughty Dog hired a number of producers to solve the problem, though according to sources within the studio, many of those individuals have since departed the company.
As fans can attest, Schreier is one of the bigger names in the industry who is typically very plugged in, typically providing insights into things going on behind the scenes. Of course, not everyone who works in the industry wants details reported or leaked to the public and sometimes, these reports can lead to a bit of friction.
One of the big reveals during the 2025 Game Awards was Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic being headed by Casey Hudson’s Arcanaut Studios. While many assumed the game was still years away, Schreier reported that Fate of the Old Republic likely wouldn’t release until 2030 or later. Looking to get ahead of the disappointment, Hudson responded to the comments and ultimately indicated that the game would be out before then as he’s “not getting any younger.”
