Naughty Dog are reportedly the latest developer to cut back on staff
Dozens of contractors cut, sources say
Naughty Dog, developers of Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection and The Last Of Us: Part 1, are cutting back on contract developers. According to a report on Kotaku, the studio is cutting contracts short for at least 25 developers, with most having worked in quality assurance.
The news comes amid a period of layoffs in the game industry, which has included cuts at Team17 and Creative Assembly in the UK, as well as 830 people at Epic and Mediatonic.
According to Kotaku's sources, the layoffs were communicated internally at Naughty Dog last week, and those affected and staff were being "pressured" to keep the news quiet. All those being cut are contractors and reportedly no severance was offered.
Naughty Dog are a subsidiary of PlayStation, but in line with Sony's recent strategy several of their games have come to PC in recent years. The most recent arrival was The Last Of Us Part 1 in September 2022, which was enormously buggy at launch. The port was handled by external studio Iron Galaxy and patches beat it into shape in the months afterwards.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection was released in January of the same year, and includes both Uncharted 4: Drake's Fortune and Nathan Drakeless spin-off Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Naughty Dog are now thought to be moving on from Uncharted.