'Horizon Forbidden West' Director Explains Why The Game Was Delayed

Horizon Forbidden West is finally here, and I’m sure we can all agree that it’s felt like a long time coming. First announced back in 2020, the game was originally set to release late last year, but obviously, we’re in February 2022 now, so it missed that mark by quite a margin. The delay was confirmed last August, and at the time, the game’s director, Mathijs de Jonge, explained that this was in part due to the pandemic, but also so that they could prioritise “a healthy work/life balance” for the dev team.

Now, in a new interview with Dutch news site NU.nl (which we’ve translated using Google, so forgive any mistakes), de Jonge has further elaborated on the delay, explaining that although the game could have been rushed out to release at the end of the year, doing so would have meant that the team would have had to work overtime. Apparently, it’s really important to them that the devs all have time to relax.

While you're here, be sure to check out some gameplay footage for Horizon Forbidden West below.

“We are very aware of the disadvantages of crunching, so we take this into account a lot in our planning. To give an example, at Christmas we said that there will be no work and that everyone could just go on vacation for two weeks. The company was closed, you couldn't even go there to work,” he said (translated by Google). “Some people like to continue working, they don't necessarily want the Christmas holidays. We're not going to stop that, but we're sending a very strong signal from the company.

“Forbidden West might have been released at the end of last year, but then we might have had to work overtime. People should also be able to relax and take a vacation, for example to be with family and friends. That also played a part in the decision to release the game now [instead].”

Crunch is a huge problem in the games industry, so it’s really nice to know that Guerrilla seem to be avoiding it the best they can. In other pleasant Forbidden West news, Sony are running an initiative at the minute to donate a tree for every player who unlocks a specific early-game trophy, which is super cool. Saving the planet has never been more fun.