Naughty Dog

As JAM Software (1984–1988)

Naughty Dog was founded as "JAM Software" in 1984 by high school students Jason Rubin, Andy Gavin, and Mike Goyet. Rubin and Gavin met as pre-teens in 1982 at a weekend Hebrew school in Virginia. After they discovered a mutual interest in computers and video games, they began regularly discussing programming, game development, and game piracy during class. The acronym "JAM" originally stood for "Jason, Andy and Mike"; however, within months, Goyet became uninterested in the work and did not contribute to JAM's operations, prompting Rubin and Gavin to buy back his share of the company for about US$100, and the acronym was redefined as "Jason and Andy's Magic". Having experimented with Lisp and C++, Rubin and Gavin chose to create software for the Apple II. They initially operated from their homes with financial support from their parents.

The company's debut title, Math Jam, was a self-published educational game designed to teach basic arithmetic, and was sold to local schools packaged in Ziploc bags. Shifting their focus to entertainment titles, they attempted a number of projects, including a nearly-finished golf game that was accidentally overwritten. Their second title, a skiing game originally titled Ski Stud and later titled Ski Crazed, was sold to publisher Baudville for $250 and released in 1987; it was JAM's first commercial game, and sold more than 1,000 copies. Their next title was Dream Zone (1988), a graphic adventure game about a boy who must escape from a surreal dream world by vanquishing a beast causing his recurring nightmares. It was JAM's first game to be released outside the Apple II platform, being ported to the MS-DOS, Amiga, and Atari ST. While the game was successful, Rubin and Gavin grew dissatisfied with Baudville's limited marketing and distribution, and parted ways with the publisher.

Early titles as Naughty Dog (1989-1995)

Rubin and Gavin cold called game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) and secured a contract with them after sending a copy of Dream Zone. Their next game, Keef the Thief, was a graphic adventure with role-playing elements featuring a banished thief navigating a fantasy setting. During development, JAM Software was rebranded as Naughty Dog, with Keef the Thief being their first title to be released under the name. The name change was mandated by EA during the signing of their publishing agreement due to the JAM Software name being trademarked in Australia. The new name stemmed from a doodle by Rubin depicting a cartoon dog wearing sunglasses on a beach surrounded by women, which Rubin suggested as the company name despite initial reservations from Trip Hawkins about its marketability. Keef the Thief was released for the Amiga, Apple IIGS, and MS-DOS in 1989.

The commercial success of Keef the Thief prompted EA to commission Naughty Dog's next title, an ambitious role-playing game initially titled Buccaneer. As Rubin and Gavin were now college seniors in separate states, they traded information and data by modem, reconvening at Gavin's family home in Virginia during summers to continue work on the game. Buccaneer would eventually become Rings of Power, a role-playing game with isometric graphics that follows the apprentice sorcerer Buc, who must assemble a team of adventurers and collect eleven rings to defeat the evil god Void. The game was originally developed for the PC and Amiga, but shifted to the Sega Genesis after Gavin discovered EA's reverse-engineered Genesis development kits, making the game Naughty Dog's first console title. Rings of Power was released in 1992 to moderate commercial success, but EA's declination to reprint the game for economical reasons disillusioned Rubin and Gavin, and convinced them to take a brief hiatus from game development.

In 1993, Rubin and Gavin were approached by The 3DO Company founder Trip Hawkins and encouraged to develop a game for the 3DO console. Inspired by the popularity of fighting games, Naughty Dog developed Way of the Warrior, self-funding production with the money made from Rings of Power. After a financially straining development, Naughty Dog showcased the game at the Consumer Electronics Show, which won them a three-game contract with Universal Interactive Studios. Way of the Warrior was released in 1994 and sold modestly.

Crash Bandicoot (1996–2000)

Rubin and Gavin moved from Boston to Los Angeles to meet with Universal's Mark Cerny. They decided to create a three-dimensional character-based platform game for the PlayStation, taking into account its lack of a mascot. Production began after Naughty Dog signed a developer agreement with Sony and secured a development kit. The game, Crash Bandicoot, starred the titular genetically altered marsupial, who must foil the world domination plot of his creator Doctor Neo Cortex and rescue his girlfriend. Published by Sony Computer Entertainment, Crash Bandicoot was released in 1996 to commercial success, becoming one of the best-selling PlayStation games.

In 1997, Naughty Dog released Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, which introduced a hub-based level progression system and new vehicles for Crash to commandeer. It became one of the best-selling titles of 1998. Crash Bandicoot: Warped was developed in ten and a half months and features a time-traveling premise as well as new vehicles and techniques. It was released in 1998 and also met with commercial success. The kart racing game Crash Team Racing was developed in tandem with Warped and released in 1999.

Acquisition by Sony, Jak and Daxter (2001–2006)

In January 2001, Sony Computer Entertainment acquired Naughty Dog for an undisclosed sum, making the studio a wholly-owned first-party developer.. The sale was influenced by Naughty Dog's frustration over their lack of control over Crash Bandicoot and the financial burdens of independent development, with the acquisition securing the studio's financial stability and allowing them to focus on creative risks without the pressure of self-funding. Naughty Dog's new intellectual property, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, began development during production of Crash Team Racing, with the team aiming to create a seamless open world without loading screens. The story features Jak, who must restore his transformed friend Daxter and stop a rogue sage from corrupting the world. The game was released in 2001 and sold over 2 million copies in North America.

As a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, Naughty Dog is best known for developing games for the PlayStation consoles, including the Crash Bandicoot series for the original PlayStation, Jak and Daxter on PlayStation 2, and Uncharted and The Last of Us on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. Before this, it also developed games including Dream Zone, Keef the Thief, Rings of Power and Way of the Warrior.

Controversies and criticism

In October 2017, former employee David Ballard alleged that he was terminated the day after informing PlayStation's HR department about experiencing sexual harassment by a senior team member while working at Naughty Dog in late 2015; he was supposedly offered $20,000 to remain silent but declined. Naughty Dog responded that it had "not found any evidence of having received allegations from Mr. Ballard that he was harassed in any way".

Naughty Dog has faced criticism for its crunch culture, with late-stage development on its projects often marked by extended overtime periods. Former employees detailed working 12-hour days and weekends, even after The Last of Us Part II was delayed from 2019 to 2020, with salaried employees receiving no additional compensation for overtime beyond their base pay. While crunch was expected rather than mandated, the workload, peer pressure, and risk to career progression played roles in fostering this environment. Evan Wells and Neil Druckmann acknowledged the problem in a 2021 Game Informer interview, with Druckmann stating there was "no one solution" to eliminating crunch and Wells claiming that attempted measures to limit employees' work time proved frustrating to those willing to work on their own volition. Jason Schreier and Obsidian Entertainment writer Carrie Patel criticized their equation of passionate work to long hours, with Patel elaborating that the culture creates a "martyr mentality" that breaks down communication and collaboration amongst a development team. In a 2024 documentary, Naughty Dog publicly affirmed its reputation for crunch and pledged to avoid it moving forward.