Former Naughty Dog senior designer Benson Russell warned that the prolonged development of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet could lead to problems similar to those he believes The Last of Us Part II faced.
In a new interview with FRVR, Russell stated that Naughty Dog's current development timelines are "absolutely unacceptable". According to him, Intergalactic has been in production for about six years, and similar projects could easily be shortened to five years.
Russell suggested that one reason for Intergalactic's lengthy development could be a situation he called "another The Last of Us 2". In his opinion, in The Last of Us Part II, the scale of the game turned out to be too large for the story the developers wanted to tell. In particular, he cited the decision to add ten hours of side content as an example, which, in his estimation, did not fit very well into the main story.
The former Naughty Dog employee believes that the problem with modern AAA projects lies in the lack of clear direction in the early stages of production. According to him, developers can spend years creating a game, constantly changing its components, and ultimately having to rework already finished material.