Even before the recent fiasco, the silent treatment from Santa Monica and Sony was really testing the fans’ patience, so when they got a glimpse of hope, be it false or true, they were elated to say the least. And when that hope was crushed, you can already imagine the kind of reactions people would’ve thrown online.
The story leading up to now
It all started with an early-June Bloomberg report from Jason Schreier, one of the industry’s biggest insiders. In this report, Schreier addressed rumblings of a possible God of War Ragnarok delay, pushing the game into 2023. Since there was no official word on the matter, people were just assuming that the game had been delayed, much like literally every other AAA game to have been announced in the past 3 years. Anyways, Jason confirmed that the game had not been delayed and was still on track for a November 2022 launch. Moreover, he added that a release date announcement was coming later in the month. A couple of weeks later, another reputable industry insider by the name of “The Snitch” posted a God of War GIF on their Twitter handle.
— The Snitch (@insider_wtf) June 23, 2022 The GIF included the number “111110” which was assumed to be a binary number. If we convert that to normal decimal, it translates into 30, implying that a God of War announcement was coming on June 30th. This “leak” lined up with Jason’s previous comments about a reveal coming at the end of June, so everyone was now 100% expecting Sony to announce the release date on June 30th. Then June 30th came, and it went. Nothing happened. There was a gargantuan outcry from gamers who had convinced themselves of the announcement coming on that date, so much so that Cory Barlog himself had to respond to it. Tom Henderson, yet another famous industry insider essentially confirmed on Twitter that the announcement has been delayed. https://twitter.com/_Tom_Henderson_/status/1542402110112862208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1542402110112862208%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwccftech.com%2Fgod-of-war-ragnarok-launch-date-isnt-being-announced-today-after-all-but-at-least-theres-no-delay-in-sight%2F This came as a bit of a shock to even the leakers because up until the very last minute, all insiders involved in this leak-mania were expecting a June 30th announcement. So, what really happened and why did the reveal get pulled last-minute like this?
Latest updates
Today, Tom Henderson and Jason Schreier have come forward to address the situation with interesting tidbits to add. Not only that, but just minutes ago Sony Santa Monica officially posted a statement to their Twitter handle, asking fans of the game to remain patient and not become toxic in the name of excitement:
— Santa Monica Studio – God of War Ragnarök (@SonySantaMonica) July 1, 2022 A few minutes after this statement was published, Cory Barlog tweeted the exact same GIF that The Snitch used to leak the God of War release date announcement, but this time with a much more ambiguous and fun message: https://twitter.com/corybarlog/status/1543037027007901696 Aside from these updates from official channels, Tom Henderson and Jason Schreier have both seemingly confirmed the same thing, that the announcement was planned and ready to go until the very last-minute when it was pulled. Tom Henderson writes that Sony was originally going to announce the release date yesterday alongside the Collector’s Editions of the game. He further states that the reason behind this sudden switch-up is unknown. However, the game’s actual development has nothing to do with any of this and is actually going strong behind the scenes. In fact, more gameplay of God of War Ragnarok will be coming at a later date, but that’s kind of obvious. The Jotnar Edition comes with just the hammer and the game, whilst the Collectors Edition comes with other pieces such as some badges, a map of the world, and more. Jason Schreier shares a similar sentiment in his new comment on ResetEra. According to the insider, he tells the same story of how the announcement was definitely happening yesterday and the leaks surrounding this situation were accurate. However, some time around last week Sony decided to pull the plug on it and delay it silently, much to the dismay of everyone. He further mentions that reasons for this are unknown but his best guess is the outcry from the Roe v. Wade decision that has taken the internet by storm. Sony might have felt this wasn’t the best time to showcase their upcoming game when there were widespread protests engulfing social media; it wouldn’t be right to take attention away from that. This is actually a very likely possibility considering how a similar thing occurred back in 2020 when Sony delayed its PS5 event in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Jason also mentioned how most Santa Monica employees weren’t even told about this decision in advance because PlayStation is trying real hard to keep leaks at bay. Regardless of the reasons, Schrier says that the game is still on track for a November release and people working on the game are hugely excited. So much so that the internal buzz reminds him of the hype around 2018’s God of War, which we all know turned out to be a massive success. Lastly, circling back to Tom Henderson, he provided a solid update in this series of events which further solidifies the notion of a last-minute announcement delay. Tom supposedly had a private conversation with PlayStation Game Size, another reputable insider who farms leaks from PlayStation Store‘s API, which revealed crucial information. Reportedly, the God of War Ragnarok page on the PlayStation Store was updated last night at 8PM BST, just hours after Cory Barlog asked fans to be patient about the release date. The leaker speculates that this update could’ve been a change to the game’s pre-order date, which would’ve otherwise been June 30th had Sony gone ahead with their original plans. So, keeping everything in mind, it seems like God of War Ragnarok is out of the danger zone of a possible delay. It would be reasonable to say that Cory and his studio are simply trying to manage expectations at this point as the devs work hard behind the curtains to prepare a hopefully awesome game for fans. If everything goes right, we should be getting Ragnarok at the end of this year.
