God of War: Ragnarok never had a specific release date, but it was expected to hit stores later in 2021. Yet as has been the case across the industry, that just isn’t possible, and the launch was pushed back to 2022 due to ongoing complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hours after the news of the delay broke, one of the game’s developers, Alanah Pearce, shared a violently misogynistic message she had been sent in response. Despite delays of this kind not being unique to Sony Santa Monica in the slightest, they blame Pearce for the delay while also making explicit violent threats.
Taking it in stride, Pearce shared the message with her followers, saying, “I think this is my first game-dev-related abusive message. I’VE FINALLY BEEN INITIATED, LOOK AT ME GO!” When a reply highlighted that the delay had nothing to do with her, Pearce explained, “Anything people don’t like that happens at [Sony Santa Monica] in any capacity going forward, regardless of my involvement, will be considered to be my fault to a significant portion of the public.”
God of War director Cory Barlog also spoke out against the abuse, stating that the delay was his call to make.
“You want to be mad at somebody for ANYTHING [God of War] related - the delay, ps4/5, trolls, subtitle size, Sigrun, whatevs - be angry with me”, said Barlog, who goes on to explain that his team are “exceptional” and that he feels lucky to work alongside them.
Alongside news of God of War: Ragnarok’s delay, it was also confirmed that it will be a cross-gen release, available on both PS4 and PS5. Explaining the move, head of PlayStation Studios Herman Hulst said the team didn’t want to “walk away” from its community of over 110 million PS4 owners, despite this contradicting with Sony’s previous stance on the new generation. In reality, this could be due to a worldwide semiconductor shortage, further exacerbating the PS5 stock issues.
God of War: Ragnarok is set to release sometime in 2022. It will be available on PS4 and PS5, and is a sequel to God of War on PS4.