Horizon Forbidden West was delayed from its original 2021 launch window to prevent crunch, Guerrilla's Mathijs de Jonge said. The studio also had to overcome the additional challenges while working remotely.
Speaking to Dutch online newspaper Nu, Horizon Forbidden West game director commented on the game's delay to 2022, announced last summer. According to Mathijs de Jonge, the studio's work culture does not tolerate staying at work overtime at the expense of the personal life of its employees.
"That happens very rarely with us. We are aware of the disadvantages of crunching, so we take this into account a lot in our planning," de Jonge said. Of course, those who are willing to continue working on holidays are allowed to, but there's always a very clear position from the company that you don't have to.
The game director hinted many games could have come out earlier at the cost of the well-being of the developers, and he believes there's no need for that.
"Forbidden West might have been released at the end of last year, but then we might have had to work overtime. People should also be able to relax and take a vacation, [and] to be with family and friends. That also played a part in the decision to release the game now."
Such politics are nothing new among Sony's first-party studios. For instance, Insomniac Games earlier revealed the team had to rethink its approach to Spider-Man's final boss confrontation that initially “was way out of scope” to prevent any potential crunch.
Guerrilla's technical director Michiel van der Leeuw also stressed out that working during Covid-19 terms was a real challenge, as "the pandemic just hit [the team] while we're in peak production." However, it had its unexpected benefits. The studio had to switch to remote play testing on PS4, which resulted in plenty of feedback for the nine-year-old hardware. Thanks to this, the PS4 version was getting all the attention it needed throughout the development and therefore looks stunning.
Horizon Forbidden West is out now on PS4 and PS5 — but you're better off grabbing the last-gen version that grants you a free upgrade, saving you some cash.