Sony Working On A Live Service God Of War Game Is Almost Painful To Hear

The God of War franchise needs no introduction in the day and age of the gaming sphere we live in today, but I fear if certain plans were set in motion to be finalized, we would very much need an intro on what this series is now and what it was in the past.

For context, a new report by trusted news outlet Bloomberg just revealed something so unhinged, I’m in awe over what Sony has been strategizing as of late, especially after the recent mega failure of Concord that has practically shaken up the industry, including the live service department of course. 

I mean, a Sony-made game of this stature rolling over no more than 25,000 copies over the short course of its post-release period and not even crossing the 1000 concurrent players mark is something the industry doesn’t see very often. And then what came next was even better. The shooter got shut down not even two weeks after it came out, signing off for the world on September 6, 2024.

Now the news of the hour is, Bluepoint Games — the proud creator of the Demon’s Souls remake — has been slaving away on a God of War live service title for God knows how long ago. Jason Schreier, a known journalist confirmed this in a post on social media platform Bluesky, although the official report by the news outlet has no such mention.

Sony Just Canceled What No One Even Expected In The First Place 

There are more chances of me becoming an overnight billionaire as compared to people liking a potential God of War live service title. The sheer amount of hate that this prospect would attract would be too immense for any dev to make a living off it, that I can assure you.

It’s honestly reassuring that the corporation came to its senses ahead of time and didn’t throw a 2-minute teaser trailer in our faces, revealing this project to the world. Good God, that would’ve been something. 

Now, the question is, who thought this was a good idea in the first place and how on Earth did this get the green light? I’m at a loss for words here.

I do remember Jim Ryan becoming an advocate for live service titles — considering how lucrative these can become if you play your cards right — and pushing the company in that direction in an attempt to create his own answer for games like Fortnite and Apex Legends, but never did I picture that we’d be trying to ruin A-grade franchises with such antics. 

God of War, as an IP, has always remained a masterful single-player-oriented title that packs all the bells and whistles — and then some — that a narrative-driven game should have, effectively spawning one of the greatest video game protagonists of all time. 

To see all that getting reduced to a mere live service format that would revolve around, what, Atreus using an automatic machine gun to rain hell down on Thor is beneath the series. Period.  

Concord Is A Fresh Example Of What Can Go Wrong With Live Service Games

We really have a fresh example of the dangerously risky nature of live service games in the name of Concord—an ambitious first-person shooter that turned into a dumpster fire merely days after launching. And you know the worst part? Firewalk Studio’s latest effort wasn’t even half-baked in the gameplay sense. I gave the game a shot back when its beta rolled out, and I was only half unimpressed. 

I did see potential in the visuals, the gameplay animation, and the gunplay, of course, but people want something fresh and novel, and Concord didn’t make the cut on this front. 

You take a look at Helldivers 2, on the other hand, and realize, “Yes, that’s what novelty looks like.” It’s a live service game done right, developed by people who have their heads in the right place. It’s the reason why about 8 million players have sunk their teeth into the Helldivers experience, and at this point in time, I don’t wonder why. 

Capturing lightning in a bottle like Helldivers 2 did is rarer than an honest politician in the live service genre.” 

The Bloomberg report also mentions another studio to have been working on a live service game, but that one’s unspecified. The studio has been named, however, and it’s none other than the makers of the iconic Syphon Filter — an IP that has long been abandoned — and the relatively recent Days Gone.

Unfortunately, Bend Studio’s devs have been working on a live service project for God knows how long, and whatever that was won’t be coming out. The aforementioned report states that while there won’t be closures nor will layoffs occur, the respective devs will now work toward new projects.

Bend and Bluepoint are highly accomplished teams who are valued members of the PlayStation Studios family, and we are working closely with each studio to determine what are the next projects,” says an official spokesperson aware of the matter. 

The God Of War IP Has To Remain Unaffected From Trend-Chasing

God of War belongs to a handful of IPs that won’t benefit a single bit from live service treatment. There should be certain boundaries as to what needs to be pushed down the trend-chasing road, and what else could be actually utilized to make a difference in the gaming community.

Take a good look at Helldivers 2, for instance. That one came out of nowhere and shook up the industry like there was no tomorrow, becoming the highest-grossing game for its respective release month right afterward. All the credit here goes out to Arrowhead, of course, for coming up with such a brilliant gameplay mechanism that blends humor with crazy physics and gunplay.

I don’t think — and neither should you to be fair — that live service implementation in the God of War IP would do the franchise any good, and how can it? A single-player series whose praises have been sung for ages and all because of its rip-roaring, exploding action, a deep narrative that grips players from start to finish along with enjoyable gameplay cannot be reduced to this convention going forward.

Pretty sure that’s how the rest of us feel regarding this news, so I’m super glad that Sony decided not to go along with its initial plans anyway. 

What’s Next For God Of War Then? 

Nothing official was able to come out into the blue so far, so we’re pretty much in the dark as far as any new God of War game is concerned. Santa Monica Studio — the creator — has been fairly silent on its announcement of new projects as well, but it goes without saying that the developer did push out a free DLC expansion for God of War Ragnarok — the latest iteration in the series — during Christmas time in 2023, bestowing upon fans of the franchise nothing short of an unexpected gift.  

• eXputer reviewed Ragnarok: Valhalla and rated it 5/5, with author Usama Mehmood referring to it as a “love letter” to God of War fans.

Anyhow, the last anybody heard of Santa Monica working on a new God of War game was forever ago, and that too through rumors and unverified sources. There was this one indication though worth talking about that revolves around the developer working on a new IP. The latter was vetted through the LinkedIn profile of Glauco Longhi, Santa Monica’s former Character Supervisor.

Glauco has iterated in his profile that he’s back at the studio, slaving away on a different project, which we presume isn’t God of War. Taking that into account, Santa Monica may very well be taking a break at the moment—after all these years of pushing out constant quality, I don’t think they don’t deserve it.