SANTA MONICA, Calif. — With the continuing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and nonessential businesses being asked to send workers home and close their doors, The Last of Us and Uncharted developer Naughty Dog announced to staff that it would be allowing them to return to their homes to sleep in between shifts.
“Social distancing is extremely important in these trying times, so we’re taking the initiative and allowing the Naughty Dog family 8 hours each and every day to return to their homes to get some distance from their coworkers and probably rest or whatever,” read a statement from Neil Druckmann, Vice President of Naughty Dog. “Development progress on The Last of Us II is obviously going to slow down, considering we’re going to be looking at 112 hour workweeks for the foreseeable future, but we’re anticipating everybody banding together and giving 110% to make up for those lost hours when things go back to normal.”
The move came as a surprise to many longtime employees of the company, which is known for its consistently grueling demands put on workers.
“It’s cool that I get to see my family again,” said one Naughty Dog employee that wished to remain anonymous. “I get to tell my wife and son about the goings-on of the studio while they drag my physically exhausted and emaciated body to my bed. After a crisp 45 minutes of rest I have an alarm so I can do some conference calls to keep development running, and then a bit more sleep, and every couple of days I get woken up by a call from Jason Schreier asking for quotes for his next crunch article. It’s a nice change of pace from napping on the studio couch and getting woken up by an email from Jason Schreier asking for quotes for his next crunch article.”
At press time, Naught Dog President Evan Wells was seen bidding employees farewell for the night by saying “The work never stops, am I right?” and letting his dire implication hang in the air.
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