Crunch culture is a hugely controversial topic in the video game industry. Many video game companies go into a period of "crunch" in the months leading up to a game's release, often at the expense of their employees' health and mental well-being. Naughty Dog, the studio behind the upcoming Last of Us 2, is no stranger to crunch culture, and a new report sheds light on how it has been crunching for the new game.

The report comes from Kotaku's Jason Schreier, who has published extensive reports on video game industry crunch time in the past. Schreier's report talks about how Naughty Dog employees developing The Last of Us 2 were still working past 9pm on a Friday night a month ago, when a metal pipe fell from the ceiling and nearly crushed them. Apparently, construction workers were doing work in the building and were unaware that anyone else was even there since it was so late.

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The report also details how The Last of Us 2 delay did not alleviate crunch. It actually just extended the amount of time that Naughty Dog employees had to work in a crunch period. In fact, one Naughty Dog developer said that it was stressed to the employees that the pace on the game's development wouldn't be slowing down even with the extra development time. Even so, some Naughty Dog employees were still relieved that The Last of Us 2 was delayed, as it allowed them time to further polish the game before release.

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Part of the reason why Naughty Dog crunch culture is reportedly so intense is because of the studio's perfectionism. Naughty Dog video games are often some of the most detailed and technologically impressive games on the market, constantly pushing boundaries in terms of visuals and gameplay. Achieving this level of quality comes at a cost, however, as one Naughty Dog employee explained.

Speaking to Kotaku, an unnamed Naughty Dog employee said, "This game is really good, but at a huge cost to the people." The same could be said for other critically-acclaimed games that have endured extensive crunch periods, like Red Dead Redemption 2, for instance. That game was met with near-universal critical acclaim, but that was partly achieved by Red Dead Redemption 2's crunch period.

Video game development crunch time appears to be accepted as a necessary evil by many in the industry, but many others have started speaking out against it. There have been pushes for the video game industry to unionize for employees to avoid things like crunch, and it's possible that will come to pass in the coming years. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how this will impact game development and the industry in general.

The Last of Us 2 launches on May 29, exclusively for the PlayStation 4.

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Source: Kotaku