Naughty Dog Crunch: Artist Defends Studio, Says It Was 'Grueling'

Ever wondered what it's really like to work at Naughty Dog? Matt Radford, a former VFX artist on Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us, just gave us a peek behind the curtain—and it's complicated.

Speaking to Kiwi Talkz, Radford addressed the studio's infamous crunch culture. He says the claims from news articles are generally "all true," but they miss a key detail: it was also "why we wanted to be there, too." According to Radford, there was a sense of shared drive and peer pressure that pushed everyone to work at their highest level. "You would feel like, 'Oh my god, we are gonna work 100-plus hours a week, this is possible,' and yet we all kind of went there to push, to try and work at the highest level," he explained.

Radford pushed back against the idea of a simple villain narrative. "It's not as cut and dry as sometimes the news articles make it out, where it's like, 'evil corporation demands horrific working hours from their employees,'" he said. Instead, he described a culture of motivated people using peer pressure to push each other to make their best work—though he admitted it "took a lot of hours."

He even got philosophical, wondering if there's a correlation between art and suffering. "I feel personally that what I experienced is great art has come from suffering," Radford said. He defended the studio's results, calling the crunch "grueling" but saying "the results do speak for themselves." For him, Naughty Dog's secret is its people and their drive.

But his comments aren't a full exoneration. Radford admits there was some degree of pressure from peers, which may have affected workers who didn't feel the same way about overtime. And as the source article points out, crunch is more than just overtime—it's about how much, how it's compensated, and what happens if you say no. If some genuinely want to work 100-hour weeks, management should reassure others that fair hours are still okay. Based on Radford's words alone, we can't conclude that was the case.

This isn't the first time Naughty Dog's crunch has made headlines. As recently as December 2025, reports claimed employees were forced into mandatory overtime for an Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet demo. In April, former senior game designer Benson Russell suggested employees accepted crunch as "what it takes to make games at our level." So while Radford's perspective adds nuance, it doesn't erase the broader concerns.

What do you think? Does passion justify extreme hours, or should studios do more to protect their teams? Let us know in the comments.