Christopher Judge, Voice of Kratos, Explains God of War Ragnarok Delay

Judge Tweeted: "Hundred points symbol in my feels right now. I need to be forthcoming. This has been approved by no one. To the beloved fandom, Ragnarok was delayed because of me. August 2019, I couldn’t walk. Had to have back surgery, both hips replaced, and, knee surgery. They waited for me too rehab."

[banshyork]

Indeed, top class studio. They took their time and there was negativity about the changes they made to GOW but it turned out to be a fantastic game.

[1Victor]

Wow the voice actor had a back both hip and knee replacements and the studio decided wait for him to recover instead of back stabbing him (no pun intended) and going with another voice actor showing respect to both the actor and the fan base 👍👍 👍👍

[SullysCigar]

Classy AND talented. Gotta love Sony Santa Monica!

[Darkborn]

And he also voice acted black panther in the avengers game so they also let him do that in between.

[SyntheticForm]

For continuity and consistency's sake it was also the right thing to do; not just the morally right thing. They also knew they could face a big backlash had they decided to speed up the process and find someone else.

Christopher Judge's voice is just plain perfect for Kratos to boot.

[adamwparker]

Judge said in the article that the only live action show that he'd like to do is What we do in the Shadows.

Good Lord! I'd love to see him as a vampire in that, haha.

[NeoGamer232]

I wish every developer and publisher was more concerned about the people and the gaming experience then about ship dates and money.

[ShadowWolf712]

He's not just the voice actor though. He does the physical non-combat mocap for the movement and cutscenes too.

[I_am_Batman]

More time is never a bad thing. It's not like the people at Santa Monica Studio are twiddling their thumbs while they're waiting for Chris Judge to recover. Considering the amount of ground they have to cover for Ragnarök, I'm sure they'll make good use of it.

[TheDoomedGuy]

Not really. I'm not invested in the company and I don't really care what they decide to do about anything.

I don't have "respect" for any company that doesn't have respect for me. As far as I know no company really respects individuals so....yeah nope.

Good on them though for respecting their voice actors time off.

I buy good games and that's the end of the matter. God of war wasn't a good game. It was a great one and I for see this next one to be just as great.

[solideagle]

?

[Hikoran]

You just contradicted yourself.. you forsee this next one to be just as great...showing you have respect for the studio due to the last game. Think, boy.

[TheDoomedGuy]

You're asking me to think?? Respect is not the same as knowledge. I know that it will be good not because I respect the studio. My respect towards a studio or lack thereof is irrelevant to that outcome. I know it will be good because I played the first game and from what I've seen they're at least going to be following the same or better formula. That's not respect.

[Muigi]

Did you read this before you posted lmao?

[ArchangelMike]

Sony Santa Monica IS one of the best game studio's out there. How did you figure that SSM doesn't have respect for you? Did they sell you a faulty product? Or did they falsely advertise their product to you, did they overcharge you or insult you in some way? It's one thing to say a company is agnostic towards you, but it's quite another to say that they actively do not respect you.

[CrimsonWing69]

You have much to learn, BOY!

[F0XH0UND922]

You're not supposed to drink the bong water my guy

[Teflon02]

There's alot of studios that care. He'll as much as SEGA always messes up and screws up on sonic game releases. They absolutely care about the community and np one can convince me otherwise. They've literally advertised Sonic fan games, they promote community things through their sonic socials and stuff. With no twist or advertisement for themselves. They do it out of love for the community. Hired a fan in Whitehead, all kinds of things that technically don't help them. If anything some of it works against them because it shows that the community has made better projects than them in alot of cases lol. I'd say look past business. There's alot that don't for sure, but some do care.

[AmUnRa]

delete...

[AmUnRa]

What? What are trying to say with this comment, you are all over the place....

[Ninver]

Get to the damn point man.

[kopp3rbug]

Hmmm, your comment comes across as self centered and in need of attention. You want a company to show YOU respect before you respect them in return...I mean, the fact that there are millions of fans that appreciate Sony Santa Monica and their games goes to show how much respect there is on behalf of the company by being consistent on the constant delivery of quality gaming experiences to their fans of old and new comers as well. Actions can be shown respect without the need to have something in return.

[Kran]

I mean they're a great studio sure, but it's like you're assuming, with that headline, that no other studio would ever let an actor recover when we see time and time again, especially in movies, that they do...

[Teflon02]

In movies sure, they have to. That's the entire actor. In games, I've literally seen it happen where a person wasn't available to record lines so they replaced them for the specific game. You've ever played a game, a voice actor is gone then comes back later? That's usually why as opposed to contractual reasons. What game was it where they recorded the epilogue content with a different voice actor a few years ago. Maybe tales of vesperia. Can't remember. But while they maybe weren't able to get a hold of the voice actor. They probably just couldn't get a schedule that works for them and replaced them for the extra lines. It's business, movies require more of actors than games. And while they're doing more these days. It's not comparable

[BlaqMagiq1]

This is amazing from them. Good on SSM to let him recover instead of replacing him.

[S2Killinit]

They are top two for me as far as talent. Everything they touch is gold

[XxSPIDEYxX]

People seem to have forgotten that game developers are human beings as well. Incredible story.

[Muigi]

They some real ones, I was never worried, the whole rush your game out and patch it later is getting old anyway.

[moriarty1889]

Incredible studio and shows the committment they have to eachother as well.

[sourOG]

That’s cool. It would be hard to replace the chemistry of the Kratos and Atreus actors. I don’t think it was a hard decision.

[Petebloodyonion]

I can respect a company that respects the welfare and the value of their employees and partners in that regard, I give props to Santa Monica for that.
But the excuse is laughable at best for trying for gathering sympathy to explain the usual Sony delay and I can easily prove it.
The actor mentioned that he had to undergo surgery in August 2019 and couldn't walk due to that, etc, etc, etc
But Santa Monica announced the release date windows in the September 2020 State of play showcase
Now last I check 2020 does come after 2019 and not before, so Santa Monica was well aware of the situation (1 year after surgery) and still decided to go with a 2021 release date.

[Christopher]

Physical Therapy recovery from the surgeries he had can easily last that long.

[Petebloodyonion]

I agree but it still does not change the fact that Santa Monica was well aware of his condition when they announced the launch windows last year and I really doubt that the acting, voice acting, mocap, etc. is done at the end of the production.
This can be easily validated with the previous version of GOW when they revealed that Kratos always call Atreus "Boy" because at the time of the filming they didn't know the name of Kratos son.

[QUIMICOMORTAL]

Wow, very impressive. And it feels like karma to hear about this the same day the game won the IGN's Big Best Video Game of All Time Poll

[Snakeeater25]

Sony should not had use god of war to promote the ps5 knowing this

[jBlakeeper]

Yeah I’ll admit they used some shady tactics to hype up the PS5. They announced a new Horizon, GOW, and Gran Turismo and were not clear in the beginning about their exclusivity. And nothing gets someone more pumped to run out and purchase a new console than a new GOW game.

[goldwyncq]

Playstation has been doing some unscrupulous things ever since Jim Ryan took over. The game was never going to come out this year. Sony knew about it and still went ahead to tease the game as a 2021 release.

[Snakeeater25]

Am sure they knew it already in 2019 just like forbidden west and GT.

I remember when I brought the ps3 on lunch day. They wrote final fantasy XV coming soon. I hate when they lie to people like that.

Fanboys won’t understand, but normal customers hate beings lied to

[jBlakeeper]

Damn the studio must want some positive PR today.

[Aussiesummer]

God damn, ouchy!

[Hofstaderman]

Jude Is Kratos. Kudos to Santa Monica for taking the humanatarian route unlike a certain individual who ditched a certain voice actor who played a role for many years so that said individual could have a celebrity in his stealth game who only spoke five or so lines.