After the incredible success of God of War in 2018, Ragnarok seemed to top that. But what did this success cost the developers?
The God of War: Ragnarok Collector's Edition is already out of stock just one day after its release. Just like the Jotnar edition, it is also nearly impossible to get your hands on.
The fact that copies are hard to come by, coupled with all the rave reviews, shows just how massive this game is. While this success is great for the fans who love the series and for the Santa Monica studios who spent so much time perfecting the game, it was only made so successful thanks to the hard work of the developers.
a marathon
In a GQ interview (opens in a new tab), Cory Barlog and Eric Williams, the game's creative and game directors, talked about what it was like to make Sony's biggest game of the year.
Going beyond the scope and success of 2018's God of War is no small feat, especially after the game surpassed 23 million copies sold (opens in a new tab) earlier this year. The stakes were raised for Ragnarok, and it was all up to the developers at Santa Monica Studios to deliver a game that went beyond its predecessor.
"It's tough," game director Eric William said. "The team is already a bit burnt out and you ask a lot of them in a place where they are already quite fragile.
But that didn't stop the team from making daily efforts, going above and beyond to make sure Ragnarok was at its best. "I've played the game probably ten times since April, all the time and on all the different configurations we have," says William.
It wasn't just the pressure to meet expectations that hit hard, but like many, the Santa Monica studios were thrown off the norm by the shutdown and forced to adapt to remote work.
"Working from home is a big deal," William said. "Walking past someone's desk and seeing something cool was dead." Separated, the team struggled to recover and make the most of the creativity that comes from working together.
not the first
"If I don't feel like I'm afraid, I'm literally going to get fired every day because I messed up," William said. "I don't feel like I'm doing things right." While this shows the fantastic work effort and mindset you need to keep improving a game to the best of your ability, it's not far from the norm for many game developers.
Rockstar Studios has been accused of intimidating employees working on Red Dead Redemption II into working unpaid overtime after Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser seemed to boast in an interview with Vulture about the fact that "we work 100 hours per week".
This interview was followed by a series of complaints from the spouses of Rockstar San Diego employees. In an open letter, "if working conditions continue to deteriorate as employees are manipulated by certain hands that hold the reins of power at Rockstar San Diego," the employees' spouses will take legal action.
It is not an isolated problem. CD Projekt Red used a "crunch" so the team could meet Cyberpunk's delayed release schedule. At the same time, Naughty Dog has been accused of putting its employees under great pressure to deliver their AAA titles like Uncharted 4 or The Last of Us Part 1.
The reason I left is that I only want to work with the best. It's not Naughty Dog anymore. His reputation for crisis in Los Angeles is so bad that it was almost impossible to hire contract game animators to close the project. As such, we've gotten our fill of movie animators. March 12, 2020
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None of this is to say that the Santa Monica studios are putting pressure on their employees. Going beyond your limits to produce a game like God of War: Ragnarok is far from unusual. "Everyone wants to take a break, but really they're saying, 'We've got to start building,'" William said.
However, as gamers expect more and more AAA titles, the pressure is mostly on developers to make it happen, and fans need to be aware of this.