The Last of Us: the development of the remake is finished, has Naughty Dog resorted to crunch?

Unless there is an unlikely turnaround, The Last of Us Part I will indeed be released on September 2 on PS5. Indeed, Naughty Dog proudly announces on Twitter that the game has gone gold, which means that development is officially over. Excellent news for those who can't wait to (re)discover the adventures of Ellie and Joel after an epidemic has ravaged humanity. As if to anticipate any questions about whether or not the studio has resorted to crunch, Anthony Vaccaro hastened to tweet a message regarding the progress made by the leaders in this area.

This is the first time in my 13 year career, across multiple studios that I didn't need to crunch to finish a game. Feels good, really good. Especially hitting the same quality bar as TLOU2. More work to keep doing but proud of the big changes so far to make the studio healthier. https://t.co/gbzyHKpVbh

— Anthony Vaccaro (@vaccaro3d) July 11, 2022
“In 13 years of career through different studios, this is the first time that I have not needed a cruncher to complete the development of a game, he explains. that the level of quality is similar to that of The Last of Us Part II. There is still a lot of work to do, but I am proud of these major changes which have made the studio more sound." In 2019, Naughty Dog was singled out by Jason Schreier for working conditions that were far from exemplary during the development of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

"We couldn't do otherwise," one of the developers told the reporter about the days that went from 10 a.m. to 22 p.m., six days a week. at one o'clock in the morning. At the end of Uncharted 4, we started doing full weeks [from Monday to Sunday, editor's note] and 24-hour days. During this big crunch period, I only had no social life." We don't have to take Anthony Vaccaro's word for it, but obviously the studio seems to have learned some lessons. This is what Neil Druckmann, his co-president alongside Evan Wells, had promised.