Horizon Forbidden West Was Delayed To Avoid Crunch

Guerrilla Games has revealed that Horizon Forbidden West was delayed in part to avoid its employees working crunch hours.

Director at Guerrilla Games, Mathijs de Jonge was speaking to Dutch outlet NU.nl (translated by GamesRadar). During the interview, de Jonge revealed the studio avoided the crunch hour culture for the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel.

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Forbidden West might have been released at the end of last year, but then we might have had to work overtime. That also played a part in the decision to release the game now,” said de Jonge.

He continued: “We are very aware of the disadvantages of crunching, so we take that into account a lot in our planning. To give an example, at Christmas we said that there would be no work and that everyone could just have a two-week vacation. The company was closed, you couldn’t even go there to work.

Crunch hours are never good

Working “crunch hours” has been an issue within the video game industry for many years. The pressure of deadlines and trying to please executives has resulted in employees being forced to work unreasonable hours. Furthermore, it’s said this pressure contributes towards some games releasing in poor states at launch.

Hopefully, big development studios such as Guerrilla Games trying its best not to impose crunch hours on employees might signal a change of culture within the industry.

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Credit: Sony/Guerrilla Games

In our review of Horizon Forbidden West, we said it’s: “a triumph for Guerrilla Games. It takes the shining promise of Zero Dawn and elevates it in almost every way possible. This truly feels like the RPG the studio has always wanted to make, and I’m so glad that it finally gets to breathe without being overshadowed.

Have you been enjoying your time with Horizon Forbidden West? Let us know across our social media channels. 

If you’ve not played Aloy’s latest adventure yet, you can pick up the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel from just £55.95 from the GameByte Shop!

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Featured Image Credit: Guerrilla Games