Santa Monica Studio Prepares Ambitious New AAA Game

The God of War franchise's creative powerhouse, Santa Monica Studio, is subtly working on a massive project. A big surprise and exciting news came from the studio's famous creative head, Cory Barlog: the team has been working on a brand-new AAA intellectual property (IP) for years.

Barlog says this project isn't just another high-budget PlayStation game; it's "technically ambitious", implying new ideas that might push the edges of the PlayStation 5 and even next-generation hardware. It's important to pay attention when someone like Barlog uses the word "ambitious".

It's not about having nicer graphics or more exciting cutscenes. It makes me think of a big idea: a game that might change what we expect from Santa Monica Studio. And since work on it has already been going on for years, it looks like the studio is taking its time to get it right.

Fans might see this new IP for the first time at a PlayStation event later this year, or maybe at the Game Awards, if everything goes as planned. Twenty years of work have gone into making God of War one of the most popular PlayStation series, so moving on to new projects is no small feat.

Still, now might be the best time. God of War Ragnarok, which came out in 2022 and got good reviews and sales, gives Santa Monica Studio the confidence and money to try new things. The company even gave Ragnarök a free update earlier this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series. The update added new skins and other cosmetic items as a thank-you to fans.

Interestingly, Santa Monica isn't just focused on this one new IP. Last year, a senior manager at the studio made changes to their LinkedIn profile, which showed that two separate teams are working on a number of unannounced projects. There is Barlog's mysterious new IP on the one hand, and spin-offs, experimental styles, or even whole new ideas could be developing in the background.

This approach of working on multiple projects at once shows that the company is expanding its creative range while still paying close attention to quality, which is what it does best. New job posts from Sony support this idea. Someone is being hired at Santa Monica Studio to work on an unannounced project in code, animation, tools, and design.

This amount of hiring usually means that the company is moving into a bigger development phase, where experts are brought in to help reach a bigger goal. The studio is basically growing bigger in order to get ready for a project that could be both technically difficult and creatively risky.

Whether Santa Monica can produce something that rivals the legacy of God of War and Kratos is, of course, the key question. It's always risky to make a new IP because fans have high hopes and will naturally make comparisons. But a new franchise also gives the company more freedom than ever before: it can explore new worlds, make new characters, and try out genres that they haven't tried before.

One thing is for sure: this project has been in the works for years, and Santa Monica Studio has set a high standard. Fans should be ready for shocks, and if the game lives up to what Barlog said about it, it might change what people think a AAA PlayStation game can do.

The main point? Santa Monica Studio is taking a big risk by going into uncharted land after 20 years of perfecting God of War. Will they give fans a game as original as The Saga of Kratos, or will they go in a totally different direction? In any case, PlayStation fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.