Keep an eye on the middle of 2027, because a new report states that Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heratic Prophet is aiming to launch around that time.

Gaming journalist and professional knower of stuff Jason Schreier has the report over at Bloomberg. The article is actually focused on mandatory overtime being used to polish a demo of Intergalactic ready for Sony to review.

The key piece of information we’re looking at comes deep into the interesting write-up: “The game is slated for release in mid-2027, according to the people familiar with the schedule”

Schreier goes on to say that the forced overtime is winding down this week as the demo is ready for review, but that people fear that this heralds even worse crunch closer to the game’s release in 2027.

Crunch (overtime) has played a huge role in the game’s industry over the years but became especially controversial a few years ago, leading to a lot of company’s trying to do away with it. Or, at least, keep it quiet. Naughty Dog was often cited as being one of the worst for crunch, and it seems like they don’t have a compunction about bringing it back.

So far the reception to Intergalactic has been mixed, but I’m very interested in seeing what Naughty Dog can create, and I’m happy to see them working on something that isn’t The Last of Us.