There are times when we will never know what the motivations of a leaker are. Leaving us only to speculate whether it was for attention, to build or share hype, or if it was in retaliation for wrongs perpetrated against them. For The Last of US 2 if a report from Sausage Roll is accurate it appears to be the latter.
There’s no mistaking from various leaks the game is woke. After all, this comes from a company that boasted about removing a tester for being upset they were opting to push agendas rather than develop tight and engaging products, as reported by GameSpot. With a company producing games of this nature, one has to assume the work environment cannot be conducive to one’s psychological well being.
As it would turn out that is exactly the case according to their source who stated that the company has a 70% turnover rate in developers who are forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement to remain silent about the toxic work environment or face their last check being withheld. Those curious, yes that is illegal, but as a lawyer will tell you: You can pay them thousands to get your hundreds or just do what the studio wants.
Not only the work environment was described as bad. The project itself is described as one of the worse they have ever had to work on as a result of both in-house politics and cancel culture.
“Many people would agree with me that this has been one of the worst projects they’ve ever had to work on, and that’s not just because some people disagree with the plot. Even though some of the team members are Christians and don’t necessarily agree with the game’s ‘message’, they are also professionals and can put their personal politics aside to get the job done. What really sucks about all of this is the working environment.”
“The team is very much divided on the game, and even voicing your concerns on its story will upset certain individuals; it usually results in said person being called closed-minded or even phobic, or some such nonsense. Some people literally have to bite their tongues or fear losing their jobs, even careers, to an outrage mob.”
“What’s really sad is that nobody is allowed to talk about any of this. Many employees have left Naughty Dog because in-house politics and they are under a strict NDA and absolutely cannot discuss the studio’s ‘productions practices’ secrets. Oops!”
Moderates and centralists will argue he is just referring to the long hours of development. Anticipating this excuse being thrown around their source prematurely debunked it. Leaving no uncertainty as to why working at Naughty Dog is a miserable endeavor.
“It was primarily the senior team that left Naughty Dog and to assume that it’s because of ‘long working hours’ is laughable. Anybody that has ever worked in game development knows that this is crock of shit. Since I can remember, development has always been like this; get to work, chug coffee and don’t leave until you’ve completed the task that you’ve been assigned for the day. It’s a part of the fun. It’s a part of the lifestyle. What’s not fun is working in a toxic environment.”
With this in mind if the game goes on to fail there likely will be either high-level departures or outright terminations at the studio. It is unlikely Naughty Dog will be shuttered, but a bad reputation and inability to retain any workforce possessing talent renders the studio effectively worthless to Sony. Especially after they ruined their only two franchises with progressive politics to a point where any new IP announcements will fail to generate any hype.
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