God of War was one of the biggest releases of 2018. The game broke numerous sales records at launch and received near universal critical acclaim. In fact, the game even won Game of the Year at the 2018 Game Awards. As a result, the franchise’s title is certainly one of the best-known titles in gaming at the moment. But, according to the original director of the series, the name was literally drawn out of a hat.
God of War Could Have Had a Very Different Title
The revelation comes from David Jaffe, who was game director for the original God of War; the game which began the series in 2005. Jaffe was also creative director for the series’ second game in 2007. Jaffe moved on to direct the Twisted Metal series, before founding his own studio in 2014. That studio’s sole game, Drawn to Death, was the studio’s only project. It shut down in 2015. Meanwhile, Cory Barlog has succeeded Jaffe as director for the God of War series. Barlog was the lead animator on the original game, and co-director alongside Jaffe for the second. He also directed God of War III, and after a period away from Sony, he returned to Sony Santa Monica in 2013. Most recently, Barlog was creative director for 2018’s God of War.
Responding to a post on Twitter about the history of studio executives wanting to change the title of ‘Back to the Future’, Barlog joked; “Original title of God of War: ‘Angry Man from Ancient Greece'”. The post prompted a response from Jaffe, who revealed that ‘God of War’ was actually one of several possible titles for the original game. “ACTUALLY it was originally between 3 titles:” he writes; “GOD OF WAR, DARK ODYSSEY, and AT THE HANDS OF THE GODS. We could not get everyone on the same page so all 3 went into a hat and we drew at random and agreed that whichever we drew would be the title. THANK ZEUS ‘GOD OF WAR’ came up!”
https://twitter.com/davidscottjaffe/status/1102818269210173440?ref_src=twsrc
So as iconic as the name ‘God of War,’ is now, the game’s title was almost something very different!