Naughty Dog’s Next Game Is “Really Ambitious” And Will Be “Really Hard” To Create

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.”

[H9]

"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

[helicoptergirl]

Members of the team don't have to crunch anymore

[H9]

According to who?

[helicoptergirl]

According to people who work there

[H9]

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

[frostypants]

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.

[helicoptergirl]

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.

[rlow1]

@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

[helicoptergirl]

@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.

[Tristan1982]

When someone pays another person to do a specific job in exchange for a certain rate of pay, it's called work.

[H9]

They didn't sign to crunch and neither were they paid for it, people were hospitalized in Naughty Dog

[MatrixxGT]

Exactly most of these people wouldn’t last a season in the trades.

[-Foxtrot]

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

[jeromeface]

cool, he finally shut up

[Crows90]

@h9

Actually yes they did. If overtime is mentioned...that's crunch.

[Christopher]

@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.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

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?

[anast]

They get paid and they signed the contract. It's not a slave factory.

[Shane Kim]

Shh... your in the era of feeling sorry for people.

[jwillj2k4]

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.

[senorfartcushion]

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.

[Markusb33]

exactly, get the game out before PS6 and if it takes crunch, or over time which you get paid for, get on with it

[anast]

"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"

[Christopher]

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?"

[Kiryu1992]

They lost so many great experienced talented people over the past 5 years

[anast]

Burnout is real. I even had to change my job because of it.

[Markusb33]

as if you dont get paid for crunch, get on with it,

[Stuart5756]

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.

[S2Killinit]

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.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

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.

[Markusb33]

probably 7 years out at this point after wasting all that time on factions

[Stuart5756]

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.

[phoenixwing]

Might happen. Who knows.

[isarai]

Nah, quite literally every industry around is having layoffs.

[shinoff2183]

I work in manufacturing. Layoffs here to. Especially people with no skill. I feel bad for them more then anything.

[isarai]

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.

[Plague-Doctor27]

A game drought? You serious?

[TheEnigma313]

$70 games aren't helping.

[shinoff2183]

Game drought. Lol what. I can't keep up. There's so many dope games releasing. I gotta ask what do you play

[Stuart5756]

Not Naughty Dog games, not this gen. You know, Naughty Dog? Who the article is about?

[Brazz]

I hope they remember to make it realy fun to play.

[GoodnessGreatness]

Yeah and not woke..

[FunAndGun]

I hope it's extra woke and really fun to play.

[Kneetos]

And then Sony will lay off 900 more staff to save costs

[Christopher]

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?

[Kneetos]

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

[Christopher]

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!

[SmortBoie]

I would assume it's already half done, since it's been 4 years since their last game and they were producing 2 at a time with 2 teams before. I know there was the fiasco waste of time on the multiplayer and I remasters but come on ND, you even gonna get one full game out for this entire generation??

[Stuart5756]

We legit don't know, you and I, everyone else that can comment on N4G, we have no idea what is going on at ND. You can assume all day long but we haven't been made aware of any facts, other than..

3 Remasters released this gen by ND.
Live Service game cancelled by ND (don't know what % of ND worked on this)
Layoffs at ND (among other studios)
No new game released yet this gen new IP or otherwise

I love ND and their games, they were releasing games like a boss on PS3 & PS4. 'Half Done'? even half done means years away, are ND skipping this gen? Even R* released at least a game a gen. But I think you're correct SmortBoie, no game this gen from ND, unless its very late on or crossplatform. Insomniac takes the PS crown this gen

[SmortBoie]

Good response mate.
I suppose I am whimsical for the days of easier production and banging out the titles but we have to face facts. Games as massively polished and detailed as TLOU2 or RDR2 - we want them, they're incredible, but oh boy do we ever have to be super patient for them.

Personally I feel if game development peaked with UC3/TLOU and cycles were still 2-3 years, we just might be better off as a whole. But gamers always want more - more graphics, more length, more details and immersion. And so, here we are.

[Smellsforfree]

I've given up getting anything from Naughty Dog this generation that isn't a remake. The development cycle for video games needs to change. 8 year development cycles and one hundred million dollar budgets is unsustainable. The industry layoffs in the past year prove that.

[jznrpg]

A little exaggeration with 8 year cycles. I think big games can cut a lot of their advertising costs with smarter advertising and not trying to plaster it everywhere and spending 50+ million just to advertise games. Word of mouth is a big deal. Advertising intelligently can get costs down. Salaries aren’t going to go down and that’s the biggest cost of making games so cutting production costs isn’t likely or nearly as easy as cutting advertising costs.

[Obscure_Observer]

"A little exaggeration with 8 year cycles."

8 years is what it took to Helldivers 2 to be developed. And that game is not even AAA budge.

[victorMaje]

It doesn’t make sense to me that a dev like ND only release 1 game (hopefully) this gen. Remasters or remakes don’t count.

[jznrpg]

Factions being upscaled and then cancelled has a lot to do with that. They should have just made it an add on like the first one but hindsight is 20/20 and easy to say.

[Storm23]

I hope they morph what they had made for Factions into a MP add-on to Last of Us 3. Would love a new Last of Us mp.

[anast]

It makes sense. They are doing something big, which takes more time.

[victorMaje]

Agreed it takes more time. I mean even with everything that’s happened & with the latest project it’ll be 1 game by/around the end of the gen.
I would’ve expected at least 1 game from them by now. It’s annoying so much was wasted on gaas.

[Asterphoenix]

Let's hope it's a new IP.

[anast]

I'm good with either way.

[Juancho51]

I believe it. They’ve always pushed the limited with their titles, especially Uncharted. I can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store for us.

[RhinoGamer88]

Another $250 million game release, followed by 20% layoffs at the studio.

[Smellsforfree]

Stay positive. It is only 20% layoff and not 50% because the game was successful.

[Crows90]

Less talk ..more working

[BeHunted]

In other words, he says: 'Naughty Dogs has ran out of ideas'

[Christopher]

*rolls eyes*

[poppatron]

Got to be a Ps6 game. They’ve completely skipped a generation, it’s madness

[generic-user-name]

Hopefully not as hard as TLOU Online

*ba dum tsh*

[Christopher]

I think the 'hard' part is them trying to make a great story, I don't see their gameplay as being innovative or difficulty, though it was enjoyable for what it is.

[Demetrius]

Have the "it game" even started development tho lol I get it when devs say this is one of our most top ambitious projects yet! honestly tho the work naughty dog always put into graphics, details, adventure in their games be wassup I hope they can continue that I really enjoyed last of us 2 I never thought I would really be into it that much, I actually liked the ending too, I was one of the ones bashing the killing joel thing was the cause of the story going down hill lol without even playing it for myself, those 35 hours played hella worth it

[TheEroica]

Naughty dog is dead.... If I were them I'd make something simple and straight forward because it appears they've forgotten how to make new original content. Trying tk do a big ambitious project coming off a cancelled flop sounds like bighhting off more than they're capable of chewing.

[mastershredder]

Without the help of Sweet Baby's, sweet, sweet edit.

Honestly, you guys seriously screwed the pooch when you chose Neil and his crew of naughty lapdog chumps over Amy. ND sold out and let personal agendas and messages (not creativity) take over.

[FunAndGun]

Good, so you won't be interested in their next project then and we don't have to read your complaining. Why do you care what a sell-out company does if they are sell-outs?

[TheEnigma313]

Sounds like it won't make it until the end of this gen

[Psychonaut85]

Jesus how far away is it?

[TheEroica]

Longer than the failed factions game.... So infinity long.

[Babadook7]

Can’t wait for the jaw dropping ambition looking trailer.

[Profchaos]

So does that mean it's a ps6 late gen game at this point

[TheEroica]

It'll be cancelled around the launch of PS7 based on previous game.... Well, not really a game, but everyone got paid!

[Markusb33]

so ready for ps6 ? talk is cheap and im tired of hearing this type of thing, what happened to let the games do the talking ? sonys first party seem to be all silent

[TheEroica]

Not silent... Dead....

[SeTTriP]

Why do we use this special buzz word (crunch) to describe overtime when it comes to game development?...i give two 💩 if they have to work overtime I have to all the time and ain't nobody using special buzz words for it either.a bunch of whinny adults if you ask me.you don't like your job quit it's that simple.

[Profchaos]

Dikatana
Duke Nukem forever
Starfield
No man's sky (launch window)
Anthem
Fallout 76

Naughty dogs next project

What do all these things have in common the devs and studio leads all went out in public hyping their project to death and promising something ambitious.

Now I hope NDs next game doesn't meet the fate of the above but I want to highlight what I think of as a gamer who has seen these kinds of statements before.