In an official statement released earlier today, Santa Monica Studio, the developer responsible for the God of War franchise, has announced that the next God of War’s release has been delayed to 2022. The game is still under wraps, with only one teaser yet released publicly, last year.
God of War Delay Officially Confirmed
“Since the release of the next God of War teaser last year,” writes Santa Monica Studio, in a statement released on social media; “we’ve been humbled by the amount of love our community has shown us. We’re incredibly grateful to see so many people excited to experience the next chapter of Kratos and Atreus’ journey.”
According to the studio, the development team are; “focused on delivering a top-quality game while maintaining the safety and wellbeing of our team, creative partners, and families”. As a result of this, the studio has made the decision to delay the game’s release window. Presumably, the game was originally due to have a release sometime in 2021. (Most likely towards the end of the year.) Now, however, its release window will fall sometime in 2022. It’s unclear whether the statement’s reference to “safety and wellbeing” was about the impact of COVID or a decision to avoid crunch. Indeed, it may be that both are factors behind the decision.
Whatever the case, while fans may have some disappointment towards the delay, most will still be happy to wait. There have been more than enough examples of what happens when a game releases too early in recent years. Games like Fallout 76, Battlefield V, Cyberpunk 2077, and other high-profile titles all launched with rampant bugs and other issues. In most cases, their troubled launches resulted in long-term damage to their reputations. (Even if the problems were eventually fixed post-launch.) No doubt fans would rather the next God of War be as incredible an experience as the last one, even if it means waiting a bit longer.