Naughty Dog Leaks & Game Studio Reputations

NOTE: This article does not contain The Last of Us Part 2 spoilers.

EDIT (5/6): Game reporter, Jason Schreier, has reported that the allegations of leaks by a disgruntled employee are false. Leaks stemmed from a security hack. Original article below.

Game studios have come under fire recently for poor workplace conditions.

I’m going to start this off as a gamer and say: leaks suck. They’re particularly devastating for story driven games like The Last of Us Part 2. I can’t imagine how crushing that must feel to everyone that has worked on a project for so long, only to have parts of it revealed outside of the intended scope of a full game delivered to the hands of players. It’s also just not cool to all the fans looking forward to a fresh experience. There’s no win here. Even if you’re on the camp that believes that “oh this will save me from buying the game”, it’s about the journey, not the destination, remember? That doesn’t make a leak any less disappointing.

Secondly, I also want to say this: all employees deserve comfortable working conditions. Abusive and toxic work environments need to be exposed, scrutinized, and changed. That’s not a left or right winged statement. This country needs to act like a 1st world one, and the corporations operating within it can be held to higher standards. The gaming community has time and time again proven that a well polished, delayed product is significantly more effective than a rushed, buggy one. Game studios live and die off that reputation. Yeah, I know you have studios like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, that deliver yearly products with marginal changes to their franchises, but minor enhancements and full price yearly exploitation aside (the market still purchases them so I’m not going to get into that here), they deliver games that work, so they continue to appeal to the masses. That doesn’t mean that a poorly executed game franchise from the larger AAA studios always succeed (Battlefront, anyone?). Regardless, taking longer to deliver a better game is always the better option, both financially and reputation driven. IN THE ENTERTAINMENT SPACE, I might add.

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in stories about poor working conditions from game studios, citing unmanageable work loads, 80+ hour work weeks for months at times, discrimination and sexual harassment, an environment that has become known as “crunch culture.” Let me be clear, this is not ok, I’m not trying to hear any bullshit “they can just quit” argument. Video gaming is a MASSIVE multi-billion dollar industry, bigger than mainstream music & film combined. What was once looked at as a nerdy hobby you’d get stuffed in a locker for, is now THE entertainment industry of our lifetimes. Don’t believe me? It’s already worth nearly a quarter TRILLION dollars, the other 2 industries don’t even come close. What’s my point?

Game studios can afford to provide proper working conditions to employees. There’s no excuse. Sure, make your money, but this industry is not going anywhere and if the motivation is to scrape up every penny for some big wigs that don’t even understand the games being created in the first place? I have no tolerance for that, you can stop reading here if you disagree.

The Last of Us Part 2, Naughty Dog’s highly anticipated sequel for the PlayStation has already dealt with multiple delays.

All of that being said, there has not been confirmation of the working conditions at Naughty Dog, arguably Sony’s largest & most successful 1st party game studio. Outside of reports that a disgruntled employee leaked details of the highly anticipated sequel to 2013's The Last of Us, no further confirmation has been provided on the validity of said leaks nor further comments on the allegations of crunch culture over at Naughty Dog. Early indications from late 2019 indicate that Naughty Dog was avoiding resorting to crunch culture tactics, as they delayed the initial launch from February 2020 to May 2020 in an effort to provide a complete product without forcing an unrealistic timeline to their team. The game was further delayed earlier this month citing logistical issues due to COVID-19. However, following the leaks, Naughty Dog announced a June 19th launch date for it’s upcoming game, but offered no further details on whether it was motivated by the leaks, nor any updates on how the logistical issues have been resolved.

Look, I’m a HUGE fan of Naughty Dog, VP Neil Druckmann, and their team. They have consistently delivered extremely high quality video games that compete for some of the greatest titles of all time (Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted, The Last of Us), and The Last of Us is not only my favorite game of all time, but I believe it to be THE greatest video game of all time. However, if the rumors of a toxic workplace environment are true, it would highly disappoint me and I would be forced to reconsider my fandom of the studio. Without further information, it’s too soon to call, but at the very least I hope that Naughty Dog takes the accusation seriously and audits it’s internal practices. That behavior is not worth the reputation of a studio and multiple franchises that are beloved by many.

I think it’s fair to feel multiple emotions. It’s fair to be angry at the person who leaked (and the people who then distribute said leaks) details of the game. Who’s to say there aren’t teams that have great working conditions and are proud of the work they are doing, only for some of that surprise to be spoiled by the leaks? It’s complicated, yet it’s also fair for people to take a closer look at their workplace practices and demand higher quality conditions. All in all, it’s just a bummer that this is happening especially at a time like this, where many people are looking forward to a game to provide them some entertainment and artists delivering years of work, to have this blemish occur. I can only hope that Naughty Dog comes out of this a better studio, stronger on the game front, and stronger on the workplace front as well.

EDIT (5/6): As updated at the start of the article, the allegations in this instances for the cause of leak have been debunked, and employees have stated that Naughty Dog is doing a good job taking care of it’s employees during COVID-19. However, the same source linked above did write about crunch practices during the Uncharted 4 development phase a few months ago. It seems like Naughty Dog has made strides to improve things since then, so I felt it important to update this post.