While Horizon: Forbidden West was released on February 18, 2022, we learn a little more behind the scenes of the game’s production. In particular the precise reason why the title was postponed from its initial release date. .
Preserve employees
Indeed, the game developers wanted to avoid “crunching”. Quesako? It’s about asking employees to work a lot more than usual in order to meet deadlines. Mathijs De JongeCEO of Guerrilla Games, told NU.nl (a Dutch news site): “Forbidden West could have come out at the end of last year, but then we would have had to work overtime. […] This also played a role in the decision to release the game now (February 18, 2022).”
“We are aware of the downsides of crunching, so we take that into account in our planning. To give an example, at Christmas we said there would be no working days and everyone could just take two weeks vacation. The company was closed, you couldn’t even go there to work”, said Mathijs De Jonge. A recognized effort, which is essential in an industry that has not always been able to avoid crunching.
A more common problem than you think
Crunching is a phenomenon that, unfortunately, can be quite common in the video game industry. The COVID-19 crisis having slowed down the work of many companies, some of them have resorted to crunching in order to respect the release dates setat the risk of damaging the mental health of their employees.
However, more and more companies are fighting against this phenomenon. This is the case here of Guerrilla Games but also of Insomniac Games (Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart). For them, the priority remains the well-being of the teams, even if that means having to postpone the game for a few months.
In the meantime, it is certainly with a little delay but in compliance with the working conditions of the employees that we can now enjoy Horizon: Forbidden West. If you want to know everything about the game, don’t hesitate to take a look at our complete walkthrough!