God of War Director 'Revealed' Ragnarok Over a Year Ago
Santa Monica Studio's God of War (2018) was a huge success for the developer and publisher Sony, which has left many wondering when a new entry in the rebooted series would be announced. Sony finally revealed that a God of War is coming to PlayStation 5 in 2021 as the ending stinger for today's console showcase event, but it seems eagle-eyed fans could have gotten a hint at its existence over a year ago.
Today's teaser was short, displaying the franchise's icon with illuminating symbols before cutting to the message, "Ragnarok is coming." As Reddit user Sangaria4 pointed out in a post on r/GamingLeaksAndRumours yesterday, this same message was hidden in plain sight by God of War Director Cory Barlog on a Twitter thread posted April 20, 2020.
Barlog's thread begins innocently with the promise of going through development notes and happy memories from the six years leading up to God of War (2018) and post-release. There are images of story webs scribbled with notes, images from the game's first trailer reveal at E3 2017, and more. Taking the first letter of each Tweet in the long thread spells "Ragnarok is coming" with a heart, at least a year-and-a-half prior to today's official announcement.
Ragnarok in Scandinavian mythology is essentially the end of the world, with Norse gods battling giants and demons, and in their defeat causing all land on Earth to sink into the ocean according to a summary of multiple poems by Encyclopaedia Britannica. The idea has been riffed upon by other pieces of media like the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Thor: Ragnarok, and Ragnarok occurring is foreshadowed in God of War (2018).
The ephemeral nature of social media makes it easy for comments to get buried in the sands of time, and more game developers than just Barlog have apparently put out teasers about upcoming projects well in advance. For example, Young Horses' President Philip Tibitowski tweeted the name "Bugsnax" in 2014, six years before Bugsnax the game was announced during Sony's "Future of Gaming" livestream event in June 2020.
Other games announced with more concrete details during today's event included Final Fantasy 16 and the Harry Potter RPG Hogwarts Legacy. Prospective buyers also learned about the price and release date for the PS5 and its digital-only model, so it's likely anyone on the fence about whether to invest in Sony's console before today should know where they stand with games like God of War on the horizon.
A new God of War will launch in 2021 for PS5.
Sources: Reddit, Encyclopaedia Brittanica
Post a Comment