God of War 2 delayed to 2022

God of War 2 has been delayed to 2022, Sony Santa Monica has announced.

The studio took to Twitter to announce the news, citing "the safety and wellbeing" of the developers. God of War 2, sometimes referred to as God of War: Ragnarok, was previously slated for a 2021 release window. Sony Santa Monica says in the announcement that despite the delay, it's committed to "delivering a top-quality game."

In a new article posted to the PlayStation Blog, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst provides a bit more info explaining the God of War 2 delay. As expected, Sony Santa Monica isn't immune to the development challenges imposed by over a year of on-and-off lockdowns. Hulst says that in the studio's case, it's been difficult finding talent and access to performance capture.

"So we have, currently, two very big, very narrative-driven games in development: Horizon Forbidden West and the next God of War. And for both of those, they're frankly affected by access to performance capture and talent," Hulst says.

"And for God of War, the project started a little later. So we've made the decision to push that game out to next year, to ensure that Santa Monica Studio can deliver the amazing God of War game that we all want to play."

Of course, we've had serious doubts about God of War 2 releasing in 2021 for a while now, so nothing about today's news is a big surprise. For those of us who were expecting the delay for some time, it's almost refreshing to hear Sony Santa Monica clear the air at last.

Near the end of the interview on the PlayStation Blog, Hulst rather quietly confirms that God of War 2 is coming to both PS4 and PS5. It wasn't clear whether the sequel would be a true-blue new-gen exclusive or a cross-gen release, but now it's officially the latter.

"Where it makes sense to develop a title for both PS4 and PS5 — for Horizon Forbidden West, the next God of War, GT7 — we’ll continue looking at that," says Hulst. "And if PS4 owners want to play that game, then they can. If they want to go on and play the PS5 version, that game will be there for them."

Sadly, Hurst also touches on Horizon Forbidden West's 2021 release window in a not-so reassuring fashion. While he says the highly anticipated Horizon Zero Dawn sequel is still "on track" to launch in 2021, he also admits that the release window "isn't quite certain yet." He also assures fans that Guerrilla Games is "working as hard as we can to confirm that to you as soon as we can."

Though God of War has been delayed, there are still a ton of upcoming PS5 games coming this year and beyond to be excited about.