God Of War Devs Talk PC Release, Mod Support, And Playing With Keyboards

We spoke to Sony Santa Monica’s creative director Cory Barlog and senior manager of technical production Matt DeWald about bringing the highly-praised PS4 release to PC.

[Lightning77]

One of Sony's top studios even wants their games on PC. They want more money for the work.

[Aloymetal]

Yeah, win win situation for Sony imo plus great advertisement for the upcoming Ragnarok.

[Christopher]

Doubt it has anything to do with money and more with reaching more gamers. And, even then, this doesn't mean the same release date as consoles, as they understand the importance of their console prioritization. Most people talking about going to PC want to get more people to play their games and increase the chances they will join the playstation ecosystem and play other playstation games.

[ChubbyBlade]

Reaching more gamers just means more money.

[Imalwaysright]

Releasing a game like GOW on PC and then telling PC gamers that don't play on consoles to go out and buy a PS4 or a PS5 to play its sequel would be a mistake on Sony's part. We're not console gamers and we aren't used to and don't want to deal with crapola from console manufacturers.

[ANIALATOR136]

Everything is to do with money. People don't work for nothing

[Christopher]

***Reaching more gamers just means more money. ***

Making more money means reaching more gamers. If Cory Barlog was that concerned with money, he wouldn't be taking a break from God of War.

***then telling PC gamers that don't play on consoles to go out and buy a PS4 or a PS5 to play its sequel would be a mistake on Sony's part***

They don't tell people, people who like the games will just do it. It's a form of marketing.

***Everything is to do with money. People don't work for nothing ***

If they're not doing a PC port, they'd be working in something else.

[Imalwaysright]

"people who like the games will just do it"

If they wanted to, they would have done it a long time ago. It's not like Sony has just arrived to the gaming scene and that people don't know what their studios have to offer. PC only gamers know, they just don't care enough to get their consoles and if Sony thinks that treating PC gamers like donkeys is a smart or viable marketing strategy then good luck to them.

[Christopher]

***If they wanted to, they would have done it a long time ago.***

New generations of gamers pop up all the time. I was a full on PC gamer until consoles were introduced to me in my very early 20s.

***It's not like Sony has just arrived to the gaming scene and that people don't know what their studios have to offer. ***

I guess everyone just wakes up knowing everything in your world? My nephews have every console, they know about games, but don't try them because they follow trends and don't explore other games out there beyond them.

I can't get my youngest nephew to shut up about all his skins in Fortnite, the next just plays Among Us, the next only does Doom, MGS, and DMC, and the oldest just plays NBA. You would think these kids that play games more than I would be informed. They're not even close to informed nor do they explore things outside of what their friends do.

[Lightning77]

More reach also means more money. Sony devs want to break through the 20+ million copies sold. Sony's reach tye same amount of ppl each generation they don't break through a certain sales threshold. Making a move to PC will certainly break through that sales ceiling and generate more money for them.

[Obscure_Observer]

"Doubt it has anything to do with money and more with reaching more gamers."

If their primary goal was to "reach more games" they would "buy" their freedom and ​go independent like Bungie and many other studios had done and are still doing it, like the latest, Quantic Dreams and Moon Studios for example.

To be part of a first party studios means that you don´t have the freedom to decide what to do with a publisher´s IP or game. So it´s obviously about the money first.

In the same interview Cory stated that he can´t say whether or when Ragnarok will hit the PC or not. "It´s up to Sony" he said.

"If Cory Barlog was that concerned with money, he wouldn't be taking a break from God of War."

That´s because he´s working on his own project and new IP for Playstation. He publicly asked Sony for this right after God of War´s GOTY award.

Apparently Sony gave him the green light.

[Tapani]

@Christopher, I'm with you on this one. I've worked with many types of creative people in my line of work, and most of them do not care about money, but about if they can evoke emotions in their audience or whoever who would want to enjoy their art and creations.

For studio execs it might be money, not for the sake of wealth, but to think how and where to invest it so that they are able to keep creating more with the teams. They often also deeply care for their teams, and their families. For executives overall (non gaming dev studio), which is the part I spend most of my current line of work, it's never about money. I meet multiple CEOs on a weekly basis in my profession and they are never after fame or money, what they want is a new challenge, learn something new, and build something. In the end, it is not too different from a creative people.

Normal people who do not work on a daily basis with neither creative talent or executives, might have no clue about these types of professionals want, and they resort to stereotypical thinking that is presented to them in the media. Dive deeper, and you realize that most people are just as human as you are.

[Christopher]

***To be part of a first party studios means that you don´t have the freedom to decide what to do with a publisher´s IP or game. So it´s obviously about the money first. ***

1. He did what he wanted with GoW, Sony let him do it and didn't make those decisions for him.

2. Saying Sony decides where it's published doesn't mean Barlog makes decision about money or made suggestions about wanting to go to PC because of money if Sony are the ones deciding it.

3. Considering most of the money will go to Papa Sony for PC sales, and they'll make a ton more on just putting out Ragnarok, where is there that huge incentive to get all this money with PC ports? Their big money is on new games and contracts that give them big result bonuses.

***That´s because he´s working on his own project and new IP for Playstation. He publicly asked Sony for this right after God of War´s GOTY award.

Apparently Sony gave him the green light.***

Sounds like Sony is forcing him to do this, based on your previous quote above. Obviously about money and not him wanting to work on something he wants to work on.

It's strange how Microsoft gives people freedom but Sony, at every level, focuses on profits. It's like people ignore that they're also developers who create art and want it to be experienced by as many people as possible even if they work for a company with a closed storefront.

[DarXyde]

@ChubbyBlade,

"Reaching more gamers just means more money."

I mean... Not really. Have you met many game developers? Money is always something they keep in mind, but there's a deep element of artistic expression that comes with it, particularly where the production values and thought put into a game are clear and unequivocal. If we're talking about something like annual sports franchises, remasters, and cash grab games, you're right. I don't put God of War in that category at all. That's more a matter of wanting more people to experience it, I'd say. That seems to be the emerging pattern for Sony PC releases: the labors of love games. Uncharted 4, Horizon, Death Stranding, God of War, and yes, I'd even say Days Gone—just look at how defensive the devs have been about it.

[Crows90]

Uhuh..you think the devs are the ones who'll make that extra money. That's a funny idea.

[CaptainHenry916]

What about same day releases? As much as I would like that, I doubt that would ever happen. Our best bet would be 6 months to a year or even longer to play it on PC

[IanTH]

Wish the devs would talk about taking some of those PC enhancements and porting them into GoW on PS5. Seems crazy they wouldn't go back to add some of the PC improvements like enhanced shadows or increasing anisotropic filtering to 16x. DF showed a lot of the settings getting one bump over "original" had pretty minor performance impact for some nice visual improvement. PS5 has the headroom for it.

I'm enjoying the 60fps patch on my PS5, but it feels crazy Sony is OK with letting their premier hardware become not only not the best place to play their own games, but lagging quite a bit further behind unnecessarily; most of the work is done, just port some of it over! Show your own platform some love, guys. I'll probably re-buy it on PC at some point down the line when it is super cheap, but the point stands. Thier games that get PC releases should have some of their visual improvements ported over to the PS5 (PS4 back-compat-plus, whatever) versions.