God of War Ragnarok is the last game of the Norse saga due to time concerns

God of War Ragnarok will end the Norse saga because the devs don't want to spend 15 years on a trilogy.

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God of War Ragnarok is a highly anticipated game, to say the least. It will continue where the 2018 game left off, allowing players to continue the journeys of Kratos and his child Atreus. Their battle with Norse gods stands to be an epic adventure, but it’s also looking like it’s going to be a densely packed one too. Cory Barlog recently revealed that the team at Sony Santa Monica is looking to make this the last game of the current saga, mostly due to just how long these games take to make.

Barlog and God of War Ragnarok director Eric Williams recently spoke to this matter in a conversation on YouTube channel Captain Kuba. According to Cory Barlog, the time intensive nature of the development cycle on the God of War games had the studio rethinking if a trilogy is really worth doing. Barlog points out that the 2018 God of War took around 5 to 6 years to make and he expects a similar timeline for the second game. With that in mind, the team decided they’d be able to conclude the current narrative in Ragnarok.

“I think one of the most important reasons is the first game took five years,” Barlog explained. “The second game, I don’t know how long it’s going to take but I’m just going to throw out that it’s going to take close to a similar time to do this, right? And then if you think, ‘wow a third one in that same [amount of time], we’re talking like a span of close to 15 years of a single story and I feel like that’s just too stretched out.”

Barlog further added that that long of a wait to finish a story doesn’t really feel fair to fans.

“I feel like we’re asking too much,” Barlog continued. “To say the actual completion of that story taking that long just feels too long, and given sort of where the team was at and where Erik was at with what he wanted to do, I was like, ‘look, I think we can actually do this in the second story.’”

Clearly, Barlog didn’t go to the George R.R. Martin school of storytelling, but ultimately, that means God of War Ragnarok should make for a densely packed game as Kratos and Atreus attempt to survive the machinations of Odin, Thor, and other figures of the Norse pantheon. Be sure to check out the latest trailer for the game shown at the recent PlayStation Showcase to see what you’re in for when it comes out.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

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