God of War Ragnarök was postponed to 2022 -apkrig
Sony recently posted an interview with PlayStation Studios President Hermen Hulst on the PlayStation Blog. It concerns the near future of the upcoming titles, which include, among others, two bright stars – Horizon Forbidden West from the developers of the Guerrilla Games and the sequel God of War with the probable subtitle Ragnarök from Sony Santa Monica. However, according to Hulst, both games are not settled on roses and their development was influenced by the coronavirus pandemic. The result is a postponement of God of War until 2022 and only a slightly better situation at Horizon, which could catch up this year, but it is not certain at the moment.
“We have two really big and story-oriented games in development – Horizon Forbidden West and the new God of War. But both were affected by the inability to shoot performance capture and the lack of developers, ”explains Hermen Hulst. As for Horizon Forbidden West, Hulst is eager to hope that the team will be able to release during this Christmas season, but he can’t be 100% sure of the deadline yet and his confirmation is yet to come. In the case of God of War, however, it has already been decided to postpone it to 2022, also because the development compared to Forbidden West began a little later. “We have postponed next year’s release to give the Santa Monica team room to create a great game that we all want to play,” added PlayStation Studios President.
You can’t build a community of over 110 million PS4 owners and then just leave it. It would be bad news for PS4 fans and it wouldn’t be good for business either.
But the list of news does not end there. Sony also confirmed through Hulst that the new God of War and Gran Turismo 7, titles previously announced only for the PlayStation 5, will also be released on PS4. The Japanese giant thus follows the example of rival Microsoft and its Xbox. “You can’t build a community of over 110 million PS4 owners and then just leave it. It would be bad news for PS4 fans and it wouldn’t be good for business either, “said Hulst. “Where it makes sense to release a title for both PS4 and PS5 – Horizon Forbidden West, the next God of War, GT7 – we will continue. And if PS4 owners want to play such a game, they can. If they want to continue and play the PS5 version, the game will be ready for them here, “he added.
As for the PS5, Hulst emphasizes that it’s also very important to have showpieces for the new system, so there are games like Returnal or the new Ratchet that are exclusive to the PlayStation 5. The theme of the new God of War on the PS4 has been repeatedly past, but so far Sony has declined to comment. Last time it was PlayStation boss Jim Ryan last November. Gran Turismo 7 will also not be released until 2022, as we learned in February this year.
Information has also reappeared that Sony has 25 of its own titles in development, and almost half of them are new brands. “The new IPs are incredibly important to us,” Hulst said. “The new IPs are fresh blood video games. But it’s just one aspect of our strategy, “he added, adding that he wanted the PlayStation studios to be bold and risk-taking. To keep pushing the boundaries of video games and making titles that matter. Such games, which, according to Hulst, would not have originated elsewhere. “Bend Studio is working on a very exciting brand and they are excited about it. They build on the comprehensive open world systems they created for Days Gone, ”reveals PlayStation Studios president.
Hulst also touched on PC ports. According to him, Horizon Zero Dawn was very successful. “There turns out to be a demand from players outside the PlayStation ecosystem to try out the amazing portfolio of games that PlayStation fans have enjoyed for years. But I want to emphasize that PlayStation will remain the best place to play titles from PlayStation Studios when they are released, even if we value PC gamers, “said Hulst. He will talk about when and how the next ports for computers will be released later, but he reminded that Days Gone was released on the PC about two years after the release of the PS4 version. The goal is to reach new players, but PC releases should not be at the expense of building a portfolio of titles for consoles.
The importance of story games and Japanese teams
The interview also revolved around other topics, many of which she would publish in separate articles. At least telegraphically, it’s worth noting that Hulst considers singleplayer story games to be the DNA of PlayStation. They should be the most important thing that defines the brand. But the goal is, of course, diversity at the same time. Offer established brands, new IPs, big games, small games, innovative titles, singles and multiplayer. Even in multiplayer, according to Hulst, they can hide great stories, so Sony studios will focus on them.
He also stressed the importance of partnering with new foreign studios, such as Haven or Firewalk, but also those with whom they have collaborated in the past – Kojima Productions or FromSoftware. At the same time, he obviously doesn’t want to make big differences between them and Sony’s own teams. Like his fellow executives in recent months, Hulst has stressed that Japanese games and their authors are still extremely important to the PlayStation simply because a large number of famous brands have been born there. He sees huge creative potential in Japan and Asia in general, and says he has some of the world’s greatest talents, which Sony wants to build on.
Hulst points out the Polyphony Digital and Team Asobi studios as the key one and wants to establish cooperation or maintain it with external teams. Hulst believes that the future of Japanese and Asian games for the PlayStation is rosy, and by the way, he adds that he hopes we haven’t seen the Astro Boot last time, given how much it loves.
