God of War’s Cory Barlog Talks About the Pre-Launch Process and the Truth About “Ugly” Games

There seems to be a lot of judgement about what a game looks like before it's ready to ship.

It’s not uncommon in gaming threads and on social media to see non-industry consumers talk about delays and comment on the reasoning being behind the delay for being “ugly.” The conversation heated up when Cyberpunk 2077 saw a delay when it was cited as performance issues on this generation of gaming as the reasoning. Many developers have been speaking out about this type of rhetoric, proving there is so much more to the process than many realise, but one of my personal favorites came from God of War’s Cory Barlog. 

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Barlog took to Twitter to expand on his previous comments about Cyberpunk’s delay, even going as far as to say that this is something a lot of dev’s don’t like sharing. 

He added, “This is due to the absolutely fucking bananas level of complexity and moving pieces required to make really any game today. We are, more often than not, going on passion and belief that the vision of this buggy + duct-taped together ‘thing’ is going to come together in the end.

“To me, there is NOTHING shameful or nefarious about the game not running well in development. We ALL obviously want to release the smoothest/most bug-free experience humanly possible. Sometimes we (mostly) succeed. Sometimes we don’t. But it is NEVER because we did not try.

It’s something not everyone thinks of and there are plenty of places, websites included, that hop on the sensationalism to make delays seem “tragic” or the process of development seem as if it’s something that it’s not. Delays can be disappointing, but it’s a business decision that must be made prior to launch with the ultimate goal of reception in mind. Until that game ships, it’s not complete, so we shouldn’t expect these experiences to function outside of reality. 


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Liana Ruppert
With an arguably unhealthy obsession with Dragon Age and Mass Effect, Liana is wildly passionate about all things in the gaming community. From shooters, to RPGs, if it's out - she's playing it. A medically retired US Sailor and now full-time hoarder of gaming collectibles, Liana's passion for everything in the gaming industry is palpable. Also, if you lose her in a crowd, just casually mention any BioWare game and the crazy pterodactyl screech will without a doubt follow. You can follow her on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy or email her for editorial inquiries at [email protected]!