Sony Santa Monica Studio creative director Cory Barlog stood up for his colleagues who have been receiving hateful messages after a sequel of God of War was delayed to 2022. He asked everyone to blame himself and not other developers.
The whole story started after Alanah Pearce shared a screenshot of messages from an angry gamer who blamed her for the God of War 2 delay. They also wished she would “get fired,” and it’s honestly the easiest thing among all other curses.
“Aside from the ones I got for being hired in the first place, I think this is my first game-dev-related abusive message,” Pearce wrote, ironically adding that she has now been officially initiated as a game developer.
Aside from the ones I got for being hired in the first place, I think this is my first game-dev-related abusive message. I’VE FINALLY BEEN INITIATED, LOOK AT ME GO! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/17jNTGGvSx
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) June 4, 2021
She joined Sony Santa Monica Studio as a video game writer last November. Although Pearce never specified what project she’s been working on, some people on the Internet thought that she somehow was the root of all problems.
Pearce’s tweet later got the attention of Cory Barlog, who praised Santa Monica Studio employees and defended them from all this online bullying. “You want to be mad at somebody for anything GoW related — the delay, PS4/5, trolls, subtitle size, Sigrun, whatevs — be angry with me,” he wrote.
Barlog went on to clarify that he really believed that God of War 2 could have been released in 2021. “I made a call and it turned out to be wrong. When you are wrong you own it, fix it, then move forward,” he explained.
For real, y’all, this is some BULLSHIT!
You want to be mad at somebody for ANYTHING GOW related – the delay, ps4/5, trolls, subtitle size, Sigrun, whatevs – be angry with me.
I made the calls. I did this.
Don’t bother the team, they are all very good people doing great work. pic.twitter.com/D5rsvzFmgV
— cory barlog 🖖 (@corybarlog) June 4, 2021
Pearce and Barlog also received support from fans and other people involved in the game industry. Imran Khan from Fanbyte said that “harassers like this hurt the game industry immeasurably.”
The God of War sequel was announced last year and initially was set for release in 2021. However, many people didn’t believe it, especially considering delays of other games and the pandemic’s impact on the industry. In June, Sony confirmed that God of War 2 will be released only next year.