Anticipation for God of War Ragnarok has peaked lately. Over the past four weeks we’ve seen lag noise quashed as whispers of a release date took its place, all with some playful social media posts from Sony Santa Monica’s Cory Barlog thrown in as an encore – the News Machine of God of War is looking like a whack-a-mole closet lately. It’s all a bit confusing, so here’s a quick timeline to bring you up to speed.
Before Summer Game Fest even started, a prominent leaker teased that we might announce a release date at the show. What actually happened was a Twitter account sharing PSN database updates revealing that the God of War Ragnarok placeholder release date was pushed back from September 30th to December 31st, causing panic.
Then we got a report (opens in new tab) that the next God of War game will be completely delayed until next year, although a separate report (opens in new tab) doubt that soon. God of War Ragnarok never made an appearance at Summer Game Fest or on PlayStation’s State of Play stream, although fans did get some comfort as Bloomberg did (opens in new tab) reported that the game was on track for a November release, with a June release date – beats waiting until next year, right?
Enter Barlog
For its part, Sony Santa Monica is taking it all in good humour. God of War Ragnarok producer Cory Barlog returned from a three-month hiatus from Twitter to shed light on the conflicting reports. This led to some fans requesting updates, which in turn led to some more Barlog jokes.
That brings us roughly to the final round of reporting. There was some hope among fans that on June 30th we would get a God of War Ragnarok reveal as the newly popular leaker The Snitch Posted (opens in new tab) a God of War GIF titled “11110”. This number could be translated to 30 in binary, so fans speculated that the news could have fallen on that date, which would agree with Bloomberg’s report. Other serial leaker (opens in new tab) added more fuel to that fire by saying the reveal would be thin, not even including a trailer.
The reveal never happened that day, with a Barlog tweet implying it wasn’t going to happen anyway. “Dear Sir or Madam”, Barlog said (opens in new tab)“If it were up to me, I would share all the information as soon as I found out. But it’s not up to me. So please be patient. I promise things will be shared at the earliest opportunity. We we make games for you. We can play games because of you.”
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has it too weighed in (opens in new tab)share that June 30 reveal was at one point on the cards, though he also believes Barlog’s tweets paint a picture of those plans shifting. Regardless, despite the excitement, the game is reportedly still scheduled for release later this year.
Barlog has too Approved (opens in new tab) that God of War Ragnarok is not delayed to reply to a fan on Twitter. He then followed that tweet with this, which seems to go down well:
One fan also risked their luck by asking Barlog for a release date as it’s her birthday – we can only imagine the state of her direct messages on Twitter at the moment:
happy birthday I have informed you of the release date. Don’t tell anyone. https://t.co/vyBh4TeR9jJune 30, 2022
It remains to be seen when we will know God of War Ragnarok’s release date, although opportunities to market the game are dwindling if the plan remains to launch this year. Gamescom isn’t too far away and special online reveals are becoming more common in the wake of the pandemic, although options are starting to run out.
More? Here’s everything we know God of War Ragnarok if you want to stay up to date.