God of War Ragnarok director slams horrific abuse sent to dev after game delay
Santa Monica StudioOne of the writers/devs at Sony Santa Monica Studio has shared the awful messages she received from a ‘fan’ who was angry about God of War Ragnarok being delayed.
The highly-anticipated God of War sequel, Ragnarok, was originally scheduled for a 2021 release on PS5, but it was announced by Santa Monica Studio on June 2 that it’s been pushed into 2022. It will also come out on the previous generation’s PS4.
While many people predicted this delay, it seems some simply couldn’t handle the news, deciding to take their frustration out on the people working at Santa Monica Studio – including dev, writer, and streamer Alanah Pearce.
In a tweet on June 4, Alanah shared a screenshot of a hateful message she received from a God of War ‘fan’ with the caption: “Aside from the ones I got for being hired in the first place, I think this is my first game-dev-related abusive message.”
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
In a later tweet, Alanah explained that messages like the one she shared “doesn’t bother me in the slightest” and even managed to find some humor in it, joking that she’s “finally [been] initiated” to her role at Santa Monica Studio by receiving hate mail.
No one should have to receive messages like this, though. That’s a view that was echoed by Santa Monica Studio Creative Director Cory Barlog, who called the situation “bulls**t” and told trolls to direct any negativity towards him instead.
“I made the calls. I did this,” he tweeted. “Don’t bother the team, they are all very good people doing great work. Every single human at the studio is there specifically because they are fucking EXCEPTIONAL at what they do. We are better because of them.”
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
Alanah explained that she sadly expected the abuse when she took the job, tweeting: “Anything people don’t like that happens at SMS in any capacity going forward, regardless of my involvement, will be considered to be my fault to a significant portion of the public.”
With the highly-anticipated sequel now expected to arrive in 2022, here’s everything we know about God of War Ragnarok so far.
