God of War: Ragnarok is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games of 2022. Initially set for a 2021 release, Santa Monica Studio decided to push the game back to next year to maintain the safety and well-being of the team.

A recent IGN reader poll which crowned God of War (2018) as the “Best video game of all time” sparked a lot of conversations across social media but also got a number of devs and personalities who worked on the game a tad bit emotional, seeing as how beloved their game was. Even Cory Barlog had time to crack a few jokes about it.

One such expression was from Christopher Judge, who is the voice actor of Kratos in the game. Judge expressed his thanks and love to the fans and to this God of War family for being a “lifeline during these difficult times.”

God of War: Ragnarok reason for delay

Judge continued on and surprisingly revealed the reason which contributed to the delay of the game, and it was because of his health condition back in 2019. He mentioned that he needed to be forthcoming and that this statement “has been approved by no one.”

The voice actor mentioned that “Ragnarok was delayed because of me” and continued on to reveal that he had to have multiple surgeries on his back and knee, along with a hip replacement, all of which needed rehab and time to recover.

Despite the unfortunate incident, Santa Monica Studio offered nothing but support for Judge, never saying anything about why the game was delayed. Cory Barlog even tweeted that he “would walk through a thousand fires for you, my friend.” expressing his support for the talented voice actor.

Amidst all of the talk about developers and studios not providing their employees a safe and welcome environment to work with, it is great to see some being a shining beacon of light. There’s always talk about deadlines and targets but seeing as how the pandemic has changed the way we look at things, this is very much a feel-good story and something that can be emulated in the industry – putting employees first.

God of War: Ragnarok is set to release in 2022 for the PS4 and PS5.