God of War Ragnarok is finally official – for a long time, the name of the game was assumed, and the rumour mill was working hard to try and dissuade fans that Ragnarok would indeed be the final suffix for the title. The game is already making some big promises: developer Sony’s Santa Monica Studio has promised that the incoming game will complete the Norse storyline from the 2018 game, God of War… so you know the stakes are going to be high.
Fan appetite for the game is clearly quite high, too: God Of War Ragnarok currently has the most views of all the trailers released at the Sony PlayStation Showcase that took place on September 9. Given that most of those trailers are well into the muiti-million hit-count, that’s impressive. God of War: Ragnarok currently sits at over 10 million views, which is followed closely by Spider-Man 2 at 9 million. Whoever said that fan desire for Sony exclusives was on the decrease?
The game will carry on more or less straight from the previous title, with Kratos and Atreus venturing once more into the ancient Norse world, attempting to put a halt to that eponymous world-ending Ragnarok. For everything you need to know about the game – including the God of War Ragnarok release date – read on below.
— Santa Monica Studio – God of War Ragnarök (@SonySantaMonica) September 16, 2020
God of War Ragnarok release date
At the Sony PlayStation Showcase on September 9, developer Sony Santa Monica and publisher PlayStation Studios announced that God of War Ragnarok has been delayed to 2022.
Previously, in a Q&A with Herman Hulst, Sony Interactive Entertainment‘s head of worldwide studios, it was revealed that the game would be pushed to some time in 2022.
“So we have, currently, two very big, very narrative-driven games in development: Horizon Forbidden West and the next God of War,” explained Hulst at the time. “For both of those, they’re frankly affected by access to performance capture and talent. For Horizon, we think we are on track to release this holiday season. But that isn’t quite certain yet, and we’re working as hard as we can to confirm that to you as soon as we can.”
“For God of War, the project started a little later. So we’ve made the decision to push that game out to next year, to ensure that Santa Monica Studio can deliver the amazing God of War game that we all want to play.”
As it stands, God of War Ragnarok will launch at some point in 2022.
God of War Ragnarok release date
Grace Orlady, the senior manager of Santa Monica Studio, provided some key details about what we can expect from the game when it launches in a PlayStation Blog post.
“As you can see in the trailer, we’re picking up a few years after the events of God of War (2018). The freezing winds of Fimbulwinter have come to Midgard, making survival for Kratos, Atreus, and Mimir in the Norse wilds even more challenging than before.”
They added: “While the last game built an enormous amount of trust and understanding between father and son, there is still a great deal of complexity in their interactions – especially after the revelation of Atreus’ Giant heritage and the hidden prophecy only Kratos saw.”
The God Of War: Ragnarok trailer also revealed two of the main antagonists of the game. The first was Freya, who was an ally of Kratos in the previous game.
“We wanted to remind players that Freya isn’t just a terrifyingly powerful user of Vanir magic, but also that she’s a formidable warrior in her own right. Enraged by Kratos’ evasion of justice by her hand, Freya will turn every weapon at her disposal towards her son’s killer.”
Finally, Thor was also revealed as a foe to contend with “Referred to disparagingly by Mimir as the ‘Biggest Butchering Bastard in the Nine Realms,’ Thor earned his title as one of the most powerful Aesir gods by wiping out nearly all the Giants at Odin’s command.”
The story will take place across the full Nine Realms, this time – which means this time we will also see Vanaheim, Svartalfheim, and Asgard. These three were omitted from the last game.
Is God of War Ragnarok coming to PS4?
God of War Ragnarok will likely be a cross-platform release, launching on both PS4 and PS5. The game was explicitly name-checked by Herman Hulst in an interview that noted multiple games (previously thought to be PlayStation 5 exclusive) will be arriving on PS4, too.
“Where it makes sense to develop a title for both PS4 and PS5 — for Horizon Forbidden West, the next God of War, GT7 — we’ll continue looking at that,” Hulst said.
“And if PS4 owners want to play that game, then they can. If they want to go on and play the PS5 version, that game will be there for them.”
It is highly likely both games will release at the same time; Sony has not yet released a first-party PS4/PS5 game that has not seen a simultaneous release date across both platforms.
God of War Ragnarok development
This will be the final game in the Nordic arc of the series. God of War director Cory Balrog explained why the Norse storyline is coming to an end during an interview with YouTube channel Kaptain Kuba.
“I think one of the most important reasons is the first game took five years, the second game, I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but I’m just going to throw out that it’s going to take close to a similar time to do this, right, and then if you think, wow a third one in that same [amount of time], we’re talking like a span of close to 15 years of a single story and I feel like that’s just too stretched out.
“I feel like we’re asking too much, to say the actual completion of that story taking that long just feels too long,” he explained. “Given where the team was at and where Erik was at with what he wanted to do, I was like look, I think we can actually do this in the second story.”
“Most of what we were trying to do from the beginning was to tell something about Kratos and Atreus. The core of the story’s engine is really the relationship between these two characters and the complexity radiates out like ripples in a pond.”
“And we could make it an ocean and make those ripples go for thousands of miles, but is that necessary and is that beneficial, or are we feeling like it’s just spreading it too far apart, the ripples get too far apart, and you sort of lose the plot a little bit.”
Barlog is not directing the sequel to his 2018 hit, though – that honour falls instead to Eric Williams. In an interview with GamesRadar, the new game director gave a little bit of insight into how the new game will continue on from the themes of the original (whilst also touching on some new thematic outlines, too).
“Staying true to what we did last time, it’s keeping the father-son relationship moving,” Williams told the site. “It doesn’t just stop, like, ‘oh, we finished this for mom, we’re good.’ No, like, there’s a lot more that goes on in life, and it continues moving forward.”
“Last time, it was one kid with a lot of adults talking. This is like, well, there are some different perspectives. We’re gonna see it from a kid’s perspective in the world, figuring things out that they thought were black and white, or maybe much more gray, and a lot more family dynamics.”
God of War Ragnarok cast
Whilst many actors are set to reprise their roles from the previous game, God of War: Ragnarok will also introduce some fresh talent to the mythological world. The two main characters – of course – will be represented by the same actors as the last game (Christopher Judge returns as Kratos, and Sunny Suljic is Atreus) and they’ll be joined by the following actors:
- Freya – Danielle Bisutti
- Thor – Ryan Hurst
- Odin – Richard Schiff
- Angrboda – Laya Hayes
- Tyr – Ben Prendergast
- Mimir – Alastair Duncan
- Sindri – Adam Harrington
- Brok – Robert Craighead
- Durlin – Usman Ally
