Shawn Laydon, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, wore a God of War -styled shirt during the PlayStation Experience keynote on Saturday. This naturally lead to questions about plans for the long running franchise. Sony’s Santa Monica Studio later confirmed a new PlayStation 4 edition is in development during a panel session at the Las Vegas event.
Creative Director Cory Balrog made the confirmation during the God of War: Retrospective panel, as IGN reported. Fans of the series will recognize Balrog as the director behind God of War II , which is considered to be one of the best PlayStation 2 titles of all time.
The Twitter account for the developer then followed up Balrog’s statement with the following Tweet.
Don’t tell anyone what @corybarlog just said #PlayStationExperience #GodofWar
— Santa Monica Studio (@SonySantaMonica) December 6, 2014
It also Tweeted, “Yes, we are making another #GodofWar,” according to Polygon , but that Tweet appears to have been deleted.
Balrog did not disclose any other details behind the new God of War , which is understandable. He told IGN after the panel that more details would not be shared for another year or two. So, Sony Santa Monica is still early in the design process. However, he did confirm that it would not be a prequel, which is welcome news after the so-so God of War: Ascension .
Now the question is whether Sony Santa Monica will continue the God of War series with a sequel or reboot it. God of War III seemingly sealed Kratos’ fate and set up the need for a prequel with Ascension .
Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics successfully rebooted the Tomb Raider franchise, so it is not out of the realm of possibility. There’s definitely a risk of alienating fans with such a move though. Coincidentally, Balrog directed the cinematics for the Tomb Raider reboot.
The other part of this story is the new direction of Sony Santa Monica. The studio suffered layoffs back in February of this year following the cancellation of an all new franchise, as Eurogamer reported. God of War III game director Stig Asmussen was among those let go.
Sony later announced in August of this year that Balrog was brought back to Sony Santa Monica. This move led to speculation that Sony may bring back God of War and that is now confirmed with the comments at the PlayStation Experience. It looks like it will be quite a long wait to see the game’s return though.
[Images via PlayStation Twitch , God of War II ]
