PlayStation’s former executive, Shuhei Yoshida, played a crucial role in delaying the 2018 God of War reboot, which ultimately proved beneficial for the game’s success.
Shuhei Yoshida, then a PlayStation executive, played an early build of the God of War reboot roughly six months before its originally planned 2017 launch. In an interview with Game File, Yoshida recalled his experience with the game, stating that it was “maybe 80% complete” at the time. However, he encountered several issues, including enemies shooting from behind the camera and frame rate problems, which led him to believe that the game was not ready.
Yoshida expressed his concerns to executive producer Shannon Studstill, saying, “I was like, ‘This is a problem.'” Despite his reservations, Yoshida couldn’t directly convey his concerns to the game’s creative director, Cory Barlog, due to Barlog’s passion and creativity for the project. Yoshida noted that his facial expression likely conveyed his concerns, but he chose to discuss the issue with Studstill instead. The game’s delay was eventually pushed through, giving Santa Monica Studio an additional six months to polish the game.
The delay proved crucial, as the God of War reboot was a critical and commercial success upon its release in April 2018. The game received high scores, with a 94 on Metacritic and Open Critic. The 2018 reboot revitalized the franchise and strayed from the previous games by shifting the setting to Norse mythology instead of Greek mythology.
The success of the 2018 God of War reboot was followed by the release of God of War Ragnarok in 2022, which was also highly successful. The developers continue to support the game with patches that bring in new content from time to time. However, the future of the God of War franchise remains uncertain, with a rumored remaster of the original Greek saga games yet to be confirmed by Sony.
