Kratos Actor Christopher Judge Says God of War Ragnarok Was Delayed 'Because of Me'

It’s a good thing it got delayed then. Props to Santa Monica for taking the brunt of the crap for delaying without throwing him under the bus.

I think gamers (and society in general) needs to give each other a little more slack. This is a perfect example of the dangers of getting upset about something without knowing the full story. Kudos to Santa Monica for handling this so well and to Judge for being so humble about it.

Angry people on the internet : ‘You don’t need hips or knees to do voice work!’ 🤣

Fair play to him for making a statement - he seems like a decent chap 👍

Health is number 1.always stays healthy.money is always gonna be there.a lot of times i like to take times off from my job also.with the pandemic and your health like epmd said you gots to chill.take your time 👑 king.god of war ragnarok will be another game of the year winner and one of the best games ever made.word up son

Glad they waited, and glad he didn't quit when he found out that Cory wasn't directing this one. I honestly cannot see Kratos being performed by someone else now, even if Chris was only in his skin for 1 game.

Met him, he was really nice for the 3 seconds that I stood next to him to have a picture taken.
He also had awesome trousers on.
Indeed.

@playstation1995 Exactly. Late-stage capitalism has people exploiting themselves, you don't even need the boss to do it for you anymore. The craze for productivity above all else is part of the great modern sickness. All so money can keep funneling up to a handful of awful people. Take care of yourselves, folks. Your health is precious. All the best to Mr. Judge and kudos to Santa Monica for handling this professionally and humanely.

Why he even feels like he needs to reveal personal information like that is a sad indictment of sections of the gaming community's narcissistic attitude.

He was such a great actor on Stargate. I’m really glad they’re continuing to use him, he really made Kratos’ performance come to life and fit so well.

@playstation1995 You speak the truth, man. Without your health, the rest all comes crashing down. Good vibes to Christopher Judge — hope he's doing well now.

@Integrity He did this in response to GoW being voted the best game of all time at IGN. Sounds like it meant a lot to him and he felt like sharing this because of it.

He should NOT need to explain anything .
Nevertheless you'll hardly see people admit they were wrong about 'Sony LiEd AgAiN'
Nah they good playing virtue signalling in other ways

Nice to hear a feel good story for a change! Hope he's doing well, I wish him all the best.

All the more reason to look forward to the documentary I shall title "Raising Ragnarok"!

Honest question - have people been overly upset about Ragnarok being delayed? I mean yeah it's been a while since we wanted it, but wanting something to be here soon isn't the same thing as being upset. It's Sony, all of their 1st party games take forever, and it hasn't really ever been dated to be delayed. I'm pretty sure everyone on PS knew we were never getting this until 2022.

I mean oh yeah sure, there's always a vocal bunch of attention seeking idiots complaining about stuff, but overall I felt like people were just waiting. I didn't read about any death threats or any of that ridiculous nonsense which pops up when games with release dates actually get delayed. Delays are how the industry has run the past 3-5 years, it's now the natural order of things. No point in losing your mind over a game taking awhile. Unless it's Pikmin 4, but Miyamoto brought that upon himself. 😉

@Voltan oh right. I thought it was because of all the negativity from people when the game was announced as delayed.

@rjejr https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.videogameschronicle.com/news/god-of-war-director-says-delay-is-on-me-as-developer-receives-vile-abuse/amp/

In light of hearing what Christopher Judge has just said, it makes Cory Barlog’s posts from June all the more meaningful. This is what true leadership looks like.

That is some incredible BS. If your main actor can't walk, you use the same animations as for the first game to build it, then do all the motion capture for the cut scenes with a double or do it provisionally. Everything besides that can be prepared and ready. Or is the acting and motion capture vital for building up the rest of the game. It's not that easy I know, but at the same time he made it sound like it's the only reason why it got delayed/it takes longer then fans expected.

Wow, that's shocking! Never would have guessed something of that magnitude was going on. The article mentions returning to performance capture. It sounds like it's not just voice, but also mocap he was able to get back into?

Of course, it's not like the game could go on without him. Personally he's more than half of what makes the game so enjoyable. The game itself is good enough, but it's remarkably on-rails and kind of basic in structure (and far from best game of all time IMO, that's just a bad joke), but it's Judge that makes it so memorable and engaging. In the bleak gray, narrow corridors, he's all the life that's breathed into the world.

Someone here commented here in the Ragnarok trailer that Kratos sounded different and wondered if the changed the actor. This certainly explains why his voice may not have been in perfect shape this time!

Considering all there was was a logo with no footage, and literally nobody on the internet with a clue actually believed the game would launch in 2021, I'm sure Judge's absence is only one of many factors for the delay, though. But it's still amazing that Cory was taking death threats aimed at the staff of a game he isn't even directing in part because the star talent was on the injured list!

@hobbes242 @nofriendo. Respect playas i agree with both of you.im a healthy man but taking times off and enjoying life even more.spend times with your peoples and have fun while taking a break is a amazing medicine.reminicing about the good old days always do it for me also.money is good.but always take care of yourself first.word up son

Yeah, as someone mentioned, the fact he couldn’t walk was part of the challenge if motion-capture was needed, but also the recording of his lines would need to be delayed because being intubated during surgery makes your voice sound weird for several days afterward. And if he had at least 4 surgeries, that’s a lot of time where his voice may not have been ready yet.

Weightlifts I bet. You don’t want back and knee problems or you collapse in a state of weakness, not very Kratos like can I prescribe low impact rehab on rower followed by bike for that man

I hope he's in good health soon, we can wait for the game.

I saw this on Twitter and I think it's pretty dope. Since it's a game they could just replace him while he was out and then just add lines on top of it! Good job from Santa Monica

@themightyant If this gets delayed until 2023 - that's at least 15 months from now - then I sadly can see people getting really upset. But it's possible.

If it does I'm putting it squarely on Sony for making this a dual Gen release. OK maybe Santa Monica wanted it to be that way, but I have to think they'd prefer to either finish it sooner on PS4 then do PS5 Directors cut later - see GoT - or just make it for PS5 as they probably ALWAYS knew it wouldn't be done until after launch. So maybe Sony forced their hand, or maybe they wanted the headache, either way, dual release had to add time. I'll go to my grave thinking BotW on Wii U was finished and delayed 6 months while they waited for the Switch launch.

But I'll still hope for August or September 2022. 🤞

@Jimmer-jammer Wow thanks for the link. People are in serious need of mental health services. Not because they are upset about a game being delayed, I think that's only natural, gamers are as much fanatics as sports fans, emphasis on fanatic, so I'm OK with the disappointment (I'm also OK with men crying) but when your anticipation and disappointment turns into verbal abuse, then you need help.

Cry, weep, pray to your gods, but when you attack people, you need help.

Edit: Feel I should add I'm OK w/ attacking people who attack you first, or are trying to screw you over, like large corporate monopolies and politicians, but people who are just trying to do their jobs, that's on you.

Good on Santa Monica Studio for letting Judge recover from his surgeries before having him come back to work and keeping the reason under wraps so the usual heartless people didn't go after him.

Well hopefully they used his downtime to completely perfect the rest of the stuff in game or maybe some new stuff while waiting for his recovery.

@NEStalgia Then, objectively, what is the best game of all time for you? Pac-man? Super Mario Bros? Mario Odyssey? Space Invaders? Metal Gear Solid? Pong? Bloodborne? Shadow of Colossus?

I'm sure you are going to objectively give it to one that deserves it and that everyone can agree with, right? After all, giving it to God of War (2018), which is an exceptional game, is a "bad joke" according to you. You probably would have been fine if a game like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is also an exceptional game, had won that "best game of all time" poll.

The fact is that there is no "best game of all time". It is all subjective and that changes with time. It just happen that right now a lot of people think that God of War (2018) is that game, which I don't have a problem with since, like I said before, it is a remarkable game.

@rpg2000 It's true that "best game of all time" is subjective and there's no real way to quantify it. But there's certain qualities that make sense to be a requirement for such a title. One is a longevity that a 3 year old game simply can't demonstrate. Taking a new thing and declaring it the best ever carries a lot of assumption about it that doesn't really apply.

To truly be "best of all time" a game ought to represent a timelessness outside it's own release, long lived relevance, outlive any trends or tropes of its time, and not age to the point of obsoleting itself.

GoW is a quality game that gets a lot of things right, but it's also a product of its own time and the tropes and trends of gaming in 2018. It represents substantial polish, but it doesn't redefine or reinvent anything in the genre or industry, it set no new trends in design or gameplay that would reshape the industry in the future. It's a wonderful tech demo for the graphics, but nothing about its visual design or game structure strands out as influential or unique. And it has very notable flaws that are glossed over in current popular reception, namely the linearity and restricted player agency, the lack of variety in gameplay/enemies/weapons/moveset, etc.

That doesn't mean it's not a very high quality game, but for the category of "best ever" it doesn't offer nearly as much as other more long lived, more proven titles.

Ocarina is a fine example. It introduced a whole paradigm shift to design both to its own series and to others, and has certainly long outlived it's own era and tropes. Mario 64 certainly fits that as well, it was the first game with independent camera control in a 3d space and influenced everything up to and including R&C Rift, while remaining itself popular well outside its own era.

SMB1 is legendary, but hard to qualify for greatest of all time. While it endures, it endures more like a fine museum piece than a truly relevant part of the landscape. SMB3 may qualify, as it elaborate level design and presentation still holds up beautifully, and no game since, not even SMW has really perfected 2D platforming level design quite to its standard. Not so for any Sonic game. While it remains popular and great fun, it never achieved particular greatness, either in its own time or today.

Games that I think could easily, and much better fit the category would be MGS, which really introduced a whole new paradigm to what a game can be, and not only has it held up, but some, myself included, still see it as the best game in its series, even today. Diablo II, 20 years later and still the prize example of the genre it both recreated and defined, even above its own sequel, including a new remaster commemorating it's supremacy. Quake, a game that took Wolf and Doom and brought them truly into the 3D, so influential that most 3D games for almost 20 years were based upon it's engine, many still are, the game itself remains immensely popular competitively, warrants its own annual convention, and also has it's own new remaster commemorating it's continued importance.

Starcraft. It's almost impossible to put into perspective the importance of that game, of the genre, and it's timelessness remaining today. Warcraft started it but Starcraft is what really built not just a genre, but a way of life in some locales. Minecraft. It's not my cup of tea, at all. But I couldn't fault it for being the top pick. It's visual simplicity masks it's immense importance, popularity, dominance, it's influence on the industry and gaming as a whole, and while it grows and grows, shows now signs of slowing down. Minecraft will still be relevant and popular in 20 years. Not Fortnite, it's a flavor of the month and will fall out of fashion just as fast as the fad was built. It doesn't have a real iconic presence as does Minecraft, it's a pop culture phenomenon.

I'm hesitant to throw an RPG in there because they, to a point, fulfill more of a large niche that it's hard to include in a "greatest" category, but surely something like FFX could qualify (moreso than 7 that aged poorly despite fan appeal, and despite that X is far from my own favorite.) Skyrim....it's actually my least favorite TES game of all time, but one can't deny it's significance, longevity, and ability to live far past it's own time. I could see that as a legit contender.

I honestly can't think of any Sony first party games that would fit that criteria. Sony's very good at providing fun that's very "in the now", always on-trend. And they're very good, or at least used to be very good, at throwing out some very niche or experimental things that easily establish cult followings, and may be personal favorites of many (Gravity Rush, Vib-Ribbon, Parappa, etc, etc.) but none really have that long-lived, timeless, holds up in hindsight as tremendously important quality that the above games do. Neither does MS (Sorry, Halo fans). Nintendo does, but mostly from their history, not so much currently.

Certainly there's a lot of other titles that could go in that list, and yes, it's all subjective. But taking an otherwise "new" game while it's still in its own window of pop culture popularity, that did nothing that really redefined or reinvented anything in the media in any significant way and has some obvious flaws on top of it all and declaring it the best ever is not a serious award.

Personally I can't stand GTAV. At all. And I also don't think it deserved the prize, but given those two, I could more easily see GTAV deserving the award given it's span not just of popularity but as topping sales charts for what is going into a 3rd generation, one can't deny it's significance and longevity, for whatever sordid reason, and I could accept why that might be chosen, though I do think it's a far less significant title than some of the others mentioned above, and plenty I didn't mention.

GoW is still new. It's still pop culture. If it holds up and everyone is still raving about GoW 20 years from now as a seminal piece of gaming, then it may yet deserve that award. But not yet. And I suspect that won't happen. It will always be seen as as "good" game, but 20 years from now I think it will be lumped in as a "good old game" but nothing particularly noteworthy that everyone must play. Time will show that it was still a product of its time.

Though Judge's performance will remain worth experiencing for those that haven't....

It's great to see a developer caring about it's employees health but there is one thing that is bugging me. What I find odd about this is that his injury was in 2019 and the game wasn't announced until a year later. Surely at that point they would have known that it couldn't make 2021, so why show a date at all?

This is not about people and what they say. This is not about Best game ever!

This is about Christopher Judge and Santa Monica Studio's. Two entities that have qualities we all could use more of. I could sit in a room and listen to him repeat one word all day long "Boy" The man gave me goose bumps when he said "read it Boy" on the awards show! The Santa Monica Studio's Director on God of War Cory Barlog seems to be a man with a big heart packed with kindness.

Christopher Judge is the God of War, the game would not be the same with out him. I will gladly wait for the next chapter in the game.While knowing everything is leading down a good outcome and compassionate road to completion.

Very rarely a buyer of games at launch, particularly since so many studio abuses are being revealed, but this makes me inclined to do so when GoW releases.

@rpg2000 and I just realized you tagged me about the other thread and were talking about it in the wrong place!

Mods, please feel free to move our posts to the gow goat thread. We're old, senile, and confused easily.

@mrmartinrohr Got to love how people on the internet think they know more then the people working on the game. You clearly know nothing about this subject so maybe stay quiet?

@mrmartinrohr

It's not often I feel embarrassed reading something on the net. Nice work.

@WallyWest Ok, now I red what i typed again and it sounds too harsh… What I was saying is build the game and then do the actual motion capture and "cutscenes" edit later. This game is harder to make in this regard because of the "no cuts" thing, but all but his performance can be done in advance. Maybe you should play this documentary and watch the latter half: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faatWOs2c5c The game could be done entirely without the actors and as the last step they would scan them and motion capture them for the game. Then of corse you would have to adjust a lot of things, but that is just a small thing compared to the scope of the whole development. If the whole development was on track and THE ONLY THING they were waiting for was the actor, they would have done it this way. But it looks like it's not the case so I don't know why is he putting this on his shoulders. Anyway, I am too supporting the studio and the actor – it's all great, but I just don't understand why is he "taking the blame" for anything. And I'm too super happy about him staying on the project.

The fact people are actually upset that a game is taking longer than expected is a level of entitlement that would make a Karen blush