Sony Santa Monica's 'creative and business reasons' for not moving away from God of War

While the Sony Santa Monica umbrella spans many games via its external development collaborations, its internal studio is best known for the God of War franchise. In fact, Sony's "God of War team" has never worked on a game outside of that iconic franchise. Santa Monica Studio director Shannon Studstill talked about the studio's attempt at moving away from Kratos, and what ultimately brought them back to the franchise with next year's Ascension.

Given how God of War 3 ends, it provided a perfect opportunity for the team to give Kratos a rest. However, when asked if the studio had explored creating a non-God of War game, Studstill frankly admitted "yes." In fact, there were even prototypes developed "very early," albeit "not in this development cycle."

Studstill was not shy admitting that the franchise's tremendous success is one reason why the studio has yet to move on. "There are creative reasons and business reasons," she admitted. Adding, "I think there was still some story...

[Megaton]

Used to be such a huge fan of this series. Sony's milking of the franchise without the content really evolving swiftly put an end to that. I also preferred David Jaffe's original vision for GoW3, which Sony turned their backs on. It ended up being a pretty good game regardless, but it could have been so much more.

[GalacticEmpire]

There is ONE GoW game on PS3... ONE. Six-ish years of PS3, one game, do you see why you are getting disagrees?

@edit: I see your reading comprehension is as sharp as your logic. I only claimed that there has been ONE game on PS3 in six years and there IS only one. Including another two platforms and a few years of releases to try and prove your weak argument is the logical equivalent of moving the goalposts.

[prototypeknuckles]

2 psp games 2 ps3 games and 3 hd rereleases, just saiyan

[Megaton]

There have been 6 GoW games released since its creation in 2005 (not including the 3 collection re-releases), with the 7th coming next year. In all that time it has barely changed. The set pieces got bigger as hardware got better, but that's it. If you told me in 2005 that I would be sick of this series in 2012, I would have called you a liar, but here we are. The base mechanics are beyond stale, and I'd love to see an overhaul.

[jimbobwahey]

God of War 3 is hands-down one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences that I've had this console generation, and I'd have been disappointed if it was the only God of War game that was on PS3.

Two games within seven years is perfectly reasonable I think, especially since the vast majority of major franchises are on regular releases schedules every year or two.

Now if only we could get a sequel to Wipeout HD, or another add-on pack :(

[Megaton]

@Galactic's edit

Don't be salty, and don't pretend you don't understand what's going on. You said 1 game in 6 years. You know it's 6 in 7, soon to be 7 in 8. These are facts. You chose to ignore other platforms to manipulate the numbers, but I'm sure Sony still considers all of those games part of the franchise, even the 3 re-releases that I chose not to include in my 6-count.

I don't understand why you're acting so hostile to begin with. All I want is a little freshness, which would benefit all players of the series. Constructive criticism is not blind hate. I'd love to come across another GoW game that tickles my fancy as much as the first 2.

[Soldierone]

@disagrees

There is a difference of releasing 6 or 7 games on ONE console within the time frame, and releasing 6 or 7 games on 3 DIFFERENT PLATFORMS....

Why fix something that isn't broken? The set pieces got bigger because thats what GOW is about.... If you don't think it improved, then you never played GOW3.

[GalacticEmpire]

I apologise if I came across as hostile. However you continue to misinterpret my comment.

"You said 1 game in 6 years"

I actually stated one game on >>> PS3 <<< in six years which continues to be true. Your argument hinges on the loose grounds that 3 main games and 2 spin-offs in over 7 years over 3 different platforms should be considered "milking", which in my eyes reads as bitter.

Your next defense was to change your argument from "milking" to "it has barely changed". This could be countered with the old "if it ain't broke don't fix it" argument but, to be honest, there have been subtle but evolutionary changes throughout the series, not just in scale but combat mechanics, game modes, and soon multiplayer. Sony's Santa Monica Studios are a very talented bunch who have put in a lot of time and effort to create the series and make it last and your baseless accusations are pretty damned insulting. If you don't like the game that's fair enough but until you have a valid criticism try to keep it to yourself, it's just nicer all round.

[Megaton]

Yeah, you only focused on the PS3 because that yields the smallest number for you to berate me with. I was speaking on the entire franchise, obviously, but we both know you knew that. My "argument" also never changed, and you're the only one insisting on playing defense. I made both claims in the same sentence of my first post. Titles churned out with little/no evolution. "Bored" would describe my feelings better than "bitter". You wanna see bitter? Ask me how I feel about Mass Effect.

This, to me, is like anything else that lasts through so many installments with minuscule changes. Halo comes to mind as a good comparison more than CoD, as GoW and Halo both suffer from sequel after sequel with little/no change, but aren't "yearly roster update"-tier on the milk scale. All of the franchises that go on and on and on become stale. It's only natural, and it's part of the reason why I prefer it when devs don't go into the 5+ territory, especially within the span of only a few years. I can only hope that they get some new blood coursing through those veins sooner rather than later, because GoW is still definitely among my top 10 best franchises of all time.

[rainslacker]

@Mega
I think your argument falls apart because 3 main games over 7 years isn't really milking a franchise. With the PSP versions, people were asking for it. There was even a petition for the first one. GOW in itself is perfectly suited for a handheld. To rerelease those in HD for the PS3 was because people that didn't have a PSP wanted to play them.

I can't really argue on HD remakes, but considering they sold extremely well, it's obvious that people wanted them.

As it stands, GOW is one of Sony's power players. It's popular because it's good. Each installment has added to the overall game play and story, which is the complete opposite of milking (like AC or COD).

[MikeMyers]

People seem to forget one very important fact, you don't need to keep buying them if you feel they are being milked. I never understood why some people actually get enjoyment out of trying to run down others who do enjoy popular games.

The biggest factor has been and always will be decided upon consumer interest. Be it Halo, Call of Duty, Mario or God of War. If you feel they are being over-saturated, don't buy them. But don't fret about others who still like them.

Sony, like other companies, isn't going to ignore a popular franchise.

[Dark11]

I agree with GalacticEmpire
.. now megaton compare that to AC , Halo ,COD etc and see the real milking.

[IQUITN4G]

Neither GOW or Halo is milking it providing these games are carefully crafted over a decent amount of time that is required for a quality release. COD can more easily be seen as milking but even then I'm sure there is a passionate team working hard each time on them. Easy just to throw out ignorant comments like this

[ratcop22]

What are you talking about? Gow being re-released as an Hd collection was becasue the Ps3 couldn't play old Ps2 games. And techincally speaking that's pretty much how the dev's wanted the game to look.

[ado908]

@Megaton
@prototypeknuckles

Wow you guys couldn't pull a cheaper move couldn't you? God of war ascensions is only being released for the PS3 and no other platform. Idk why you guys are counting PSP games and collections as if they are the same thing and they are new to the franchise. God of War 3 is the only true God of war game being built ground up for Ps3.

Because based off your logic's that's like saying the mgs collection is counted for this gen along with 4 because it's released in HD this year despite the fact that some released on Psone. You see where I'm getting at?

Games released ground up for PSP and PS2 does not count God of war being made for PS3. There is only one true God of war game that released this gen for PS3.

[Riderz1337]

LOL at people complaining at GOW being milked.
God of War I - 94 Meta
God of War II - 93 Meta
God of War III - 92 Meta
God of War Chains of Olympus - 91 Meta
God of War Ghost of Sparta - 86 Meta
If they are "milking" the franchise, then this surely has not affected the quality of the game, unlike some franchises. Not to mention God of War III is the highest selling of the franchise which shows an increase of popularity. So you're telling me that they should stop God of War games even though they keep selling AND still are excellent games in terms of quality. LOLOLOLOL

[prototypeknuckles]

woah no one ever said they should stop especially if its making the company money, EX: mario and call of duty, but regardless it is being milked a little, and there really hasnt been anything new until ascention comes out which adds a very unique looking multiplayer.

[miyamoto]

And doing the apparently un-thinkable multi-player 'Power Stone-ish' mode that looks as good as the single player mode was a stroke of genius only true veteran gamers with rich gaming background can pull off.

These guys are top dogs who knows what they are doing.

[chasegarcia]

same with Call of Duty 80+ lol Ikid

[smashcrashbash]

As long as GOW has good stories to tell who cares? At least it's not like other franchises who branch off into all sorts of crap like cart racing or tennis or basketball or who keep making a franchise and each story is worse then the last. Kratos's life is a complicated one and it takes more then one story to explain it all. It isn't like Mario where each and every game is about how the princess is captured or like Zelda where the princess is either captured or going to be captured and we fight a so called mystery villain who always turns out to be Ganon.Why don't people beg for those games to end? How come it is always Sony and friends that must end their franchises early while everyone else can keep going forever and raking in the money?

[Kennytaur]

Keep 'em coming Santa!

[fantasygamer]

I would like to see Sony Santa Monica take over the reigns of developing a Sequel to Heavenly Sword.

[Megaton]

I've been wanting that for years.

[rainslacker]

I honestly saw heavenly sword as a direct competitor to GOW. It was a really fun, albeit short, game. I actually found Noriko and the bad guys more interesting than Kratos and the Gods, all of which seemed somewhat 1 dimensional until later in the series.

[Jek_Porkins]

Lets face it, all of the big three have certain franchises that pay the bills. They shouldn't be ashamed of it, as long as the quality is there and people want the games, who cares?

I loved God Of War 3, and recently started playing through the God Of War Saga that I bought on Black Friday for $10, they are really enjoyable titles and even the PSP games are fun and enjoyable. Has this generation become so jaded that we cant let people like what they want to without trying to attach our personal stigmas to it? They are good games, stop labeling everything as "milked". We are in unprecedented territory with the longer than usual console cycle. Should we force these companies to apologize for giving the majority of their console owners the AAA franchises they bought the consoles for in the first place?

I bought a PS3 for God Of War, Metal Gear, Killzone ect... I want those games. I bought a Xbox 360 for Halo, Gears and Forza and I want those games, I bought a Wii for Mario, Zelda and Metroid and I want those games too. There isn't anything wrong or milked about it.

[Williamson]

I was hoping for a sequel rather than a prequel. I know it wouldnt have been easy to follow up to gow3 ending although it would of been interesting to see where they could of gone, but ill still enjoy this game and hope for # 4 next gen. That being said i feel that the 2 psp games had amazing storylines.

[Nexgensensation]

should make a demons souls like game