“Brutal” crunch during the development of Uncharted 4 is reportedly the leading reason behind many developers leaving Naughty Dog.
During a recent interview with KIWI TALKZ, former Naughty Dog designer Quentin Cobb talked about his time at Naughty Dog, where he and others faced severe crunch working on Uncharted 4. He described the development of the former as the most demanding period of his career, revealing that he routinely worked between 60 and 80 hours per week and even logged “at least two weeks of 100 hours.”
“Uncharted 4 was brutal,” Cobb said. While he praised the final product as “an incredible game and an amazing end product,” he explained that production changes and the demands of supporting both single-player and multiplayer content resulted in an exceptionally intense workload. Unlike some team members who were able to take a break after the completion of the campaign, Cobb immediately transitioned to work on the game’s multiplayer and co-op components. According to him, the pressure continued throughout most of 2016, up until the release of co-op content post-launch.
The experience became even more difficult for Cobb because it coincided with changes in his personal life. His first daughter was born shortly after the release of The Last of Us in 2013. “After that year, I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” he recalled. “I love the games…I love working on them. It’s a great place to be, but the hours were just way too intense, especially with the family.”
Cobb mentioned that he ultimately left Naughty Dog in early 2017, shortly after contributing a small amount of work to The Lost Legacy. While he only spent a few months assisting the project, he said that the standalone expansion also experienced difficult working conditions. He clarified that avoiding crunch was the main reason behind his departure from the studio. “I left LA, left Naughty Dog, and moved to San Diego to change jobs and change companies to not work crunch,” he said. “That was the number one reason.”
