With more than three years having passed since Crash Bandicoot’s last outing, Dan Jenko argues it’s time for the legendary marsupial to make his return – and asks why platforming heroes have been abandoned in favour of muscular action types.
Speaking on what’s coming next for Naughty Dog, which could be either their new IP or The Last Of Us Part III, Druckmann gave what he seems to feel are realities of the project he’s talking about. That it’ll both be “really ambitious” but also “really hard.”
Neil Druckmann talks about Naughty Dog's Next Game which is really ambitious and parts of it are hard to make! pic.twitter.com/IqY2KEI1Gb
— DomTheBomb (@DomTheBombYT) March 1, 2024
"I’ve really surrendered to knowing it’s going to be really hard, knowing it’s going to stress members of the team out"
As if crunch wasn't stressing them enough
So the people who remained in a studio that had tons of workers quiting and others laid off said that they don't have to crunch, and you are just believing that
They absolutely will wind up having to crunch. Happens at the end of almost every software project development cycle, especially with release date pressures. It's part of the job. Obviously they aren't in a crunch when they aren't in that late phase. But it's wishful thinking if they think they won't see that stress again. Druckmann himself seems to be aware of that.
Yes I believe them. The people who want to crunch can do it. The people who mentally and physically can't, don't actually have to. Some have young babies at home. Things have changed since the Schreier report.
@helicoptergirl
It wishful thinking to think some workers can choose to crunch or not to do so. That’s akin to people you work with saying they don’t have to do work they don’t like and you’re the one that has to take up the slack. That’s not how things work. Especially if your the person assigned to a specific task that has to be completed for the development to move forward. It’s a team sport when it comes to making a game. As with most things in life. Now that they are a smaller group, it’s even more important for everyone to pull their weight. Peace
@rlow that was exactly the mentality before the exposure and it was talked about and reported on. It's different now. You know, sometimes things and attitudes just change for the better. They knew they needed to change and they have and they're not stopping trying to make the creative environment as good as it can be.
When someone pays another person to do a specific job in exchange for a certain rate of pay, it's called work.
They didn't sign to crunch and neither were they paid for it, people were hospitalized in Naughty Dog
Exactly most of these people wouldn’t last a season in the trades.
I f******* love how many people are doing a complete 180 on their views of crunch culture despite the awful stories reported on over the many years just because we’re talking about NaughtyDog
You can’t just cherry pick what to be mad about
“They signed a contract…it’s called work…that’s life…it’s a job”
I mean really guys, if this was EA you’d be having a field day
I bet you any money if any of these guys regardless of studio went in and said to their superior “Listen, don’t feel like the over time tonight, I’ll just stick to my normal contracted hours if that’s alright” I highly doubt they’d be given a warm response
@Tristan1982: The problem is crunch is because of the inefficient management and sudden changes in projects. ND made major story changes based on some feedback, that results in months of rework, redesign, etc. And none of those changes were built into the project from the get-go, so they still have to meet a deadline.
@H9: One person. And they did sign up for crunch, ND is notorious for hiring people who don't mind it. That's the problem, they tell you who they are, people just aren't listening. And, they did get paid, just their QA level of people are paid shit, which is an industry issue for something so freaking important. And people wonder why we have such broken games at launch. Because companies don't want to pay to deliver as long as people will buy enough to get them past first few months of patches and then re-release a major patch with an expansion to get people to come back.
@-Foxtrot " You can’t just cherry pick what to be mad about " -- N4G home of 'hold my beer' on that alone.
The kindda guy to guilt trip others into overwork or tell them to be better slaves ('employees'). Exactly what corps like. How does it taste?
Assuming you have a job, how would you feel working 80 hours a week for the same pay? You’ve not experienced crunch otherwise you wouldn’t be speaking like this.
As somebody who has crunched before. No, it wasn't my choice, no, you couldn't handle it, and no, you don't work in a better industry than I do.
exactly, get the game out before PS6 and if it takes crunch, or over time which you get paid for, get on with it
"Assuming you have a job"
Assuming I haven't worked more for less, I suppose. And yes, I do.
"Shh... your in the era of feeling sorry for people."
I feel awful for the people that fought for the workers and got stuck holding the bag and lost everything.
"no, you couldn't handle it, "
You mean "I"
I really hope this isn't management BS stress. I get wanting to put the best out, finding the best new ways and concepts, and ensuring your design is just top notch and not wasteful and fulfilling, but when I hear some manager talking about this my first thought is "Are these jerks changing paradigms on a regular basis that's making people play catch up and redo work to meet their new goals?"
That it’ll both be “really ambitious” but also “really hard.”
Not 'is' but 'will be', kinda suggests that they haven't started yet, hope not.
Come on ND, a game PLEAAAAASSSSEEEE. Desperate this gen.
From the article:
“Working on this new game, it’s really ambitious, parts of it are really hard,…”
That is the actual quote. They are already working on it.
Yeah, a lot of people push fake narratives about NaughtyDog and misquote things. That quote is very straightforward.
https://twitter.com/MitchyD...
Above is the complete debunking of a false story that still gets spread around all the time. And the bad faith actors doing it also only pin it on Druckmann for some reason and ignore Straley. They want to portray Druckmann as an evil schemer, even when the false story they're spreading doesn't align with their narrative. They don't care about reality ...
SuckerPunch doesn't get even 1% of this criticism and they haven't provided any update whatsoever on their next game, and it's a sequel not a new IP, so turnaround would be quicker. That's not logical.
Also, just off-topic slightly but..
Does anyone think that layoffs now may well be making space for AI integration of game development, and 'crunch-time', 'unsustainable', 'big budget' are all terms been used to butter us up to receiving the news that AI integration will help and maintain the level of AAA games that were accustomed to? Perhaps the layoffs were the devs that didn't join a union quick enough and if only they had the smarts of SAG members and strike while the time is right, before its too late?! Imagine DEV's on strike at a time like this, there's already a game drought.
I work in manufacturing. Layoffs here to. Especially people with no skill. I feel bad for them more then anything.
I work in advertisement, Im being laid off in may despite being the 3rd best on my team of 15 just under the team lead and assistant team lead, and the assistant team lead is out next week. Yet the last two years we've all been congratulated for record numbers. Times are weird.
Game drought. Lol what. I can't keep up. There's so many dope games releasing. I gotta ask what do you play
Not Naughty Dog games, not this gen. You know, Naughty Dog? Who the article is about?
Is this supposed to be a big gotcha after Microsoft laid off 1,900 and we're ignoring that? Let alone the over 16,000 other layoffs from Microsoft in 2023?
This is an article talking about Sony, no one said anything about Microsoft
And we should always be reminded of it like people are doing with Microsoft, Sony shouldn't get a free pass either
Yes, and this article is 100% about Sony firing people.
ND says new game is ambitious - until Sony lays off 900 more staff to save costs!
Sony publishes new gameplay video - until Sony lays off 900 more staff to save costs!
Sony announces weekend sale deals - until Sony lays off 900 more staff to save costs!
The legal battle for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard continues, with Microsoft countering one of the FTC's latest moves and the Judge delaying a relevant ruling.
Look, to be honest the FTC should just stop.
MS has A/B and nothing has really changed yet...if you are worried about 5-10 years from now...just drop it cause the future is unpredictable.
Take this week's news, that 4 Xbox exclusive are going Multiplatform.
The FTC and the lawyers behind the "Gamers' lawsuit" against Microsoft over the acquisition of Activision Blizzard are denouncing the recent layoffs within the respective legal battles.
Interesting article and about time someone else brought it up too. Although, seeing how Activision retooled Spyro for Skylanders, if Crash returns, will it still be the bandicoot we love?
Don't want it unless ND gets the rights back to it.
I find it funny that Sonic and Crash were both Mario's rivals and now they are on his home console
The lesson is dont be Mario's rival
I'm not sure why Crash didn't follow the course Spyro took. No it isn't pretty, but eventually it has to make something of it right?
@Pikajew
In fairness to Crash, he had to leave his creators(Naughty Dog/Sony)because of Universal. It was something in that nature.
But if Sony/Naughty dog had made an exclusive PS2 Crash Bandicoot follow by a exclusive PS3 Crash, its no telling what would Crash fame would of be today.