God of War Ragnarok team wanted to match The Last of Us "one for one" on accessibility options

God of War Ragnarok screenshots captured on PS5 — (Image credit: Sony)

The God of War Ragnarok team has made huge strides with its accessibility features, and it's down to wanting to "match Naughty Dog one-for-one".

That's according to game director, Eric Williams, who told us that the team at Sony Santa Monica wants to help lead the way for other studios to improve their accessibility options.

"We go deep into accessibility this time around," explains Williams in an interview with GamesRadar. "We scratched the surface [with the first game] so it was like, be better."

"So it wasn't like 'oh, we'll take a couple of times to get up to Naughty Dog's level'. No, we're just going to go match them one-for-one, right now, with this game. We're part of the first-party studio system - we have to lead the way. [Naughty Dog] put out the first flag, and we need to go right behind them. Then it'll push more studios to do this and more people can play games."

Williams also says that a letter from a young player trying to enjoy the 2018 God of War reboot has stuck with him and helped to ensure that God of War Ragnarok has industry-leading accessibility features.

"There's this story from God of War that broke my heart. It's the first time ever I kind of experienced it. This kid wrote us a letter - a handwritten letter. He loved the game. First page [of the letter] was just glowing, and then he gets to the part where he says he was stuck in the desert for like four hours. And I'm thinking in my head, like, what happened? But, he was deaf… and it's an audio puzzle. It crushed me, and I was like we cannot do this ever again.

"It's always stuck with me, so when we finally got the chance to push that boundary, it was awesome to be able to do that. Because it's good for everybody. It doesn't matter if you have a disability or not, it just makes the game more accessible, and then therefore more people can play games."

Want to know more? We talk with God of War Raganrok's game director about the importance of the opening hours - which we also got to see in our God of War preview.

Sam Loveridge is the Brand Director and former Global Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar. She joined the team in August 2017. Sam came to GamesRadar after working at TrustedReviews, Digital Spy, and Fandom, following the completion of an MA in Journalism. In her time, she's also had appearances on The Guardian, BBC, and more. Her experience has seen her cover console and PC games, along with gaming hardware, for a decade, and for GamesRadar, she's in charge of the site's overall direction, managing the team, and making sure it's the best it can be. Her gaming passions lie with weird simulation games, big open-world RPGs, and beautifully crafted indies. She plays across all platforms, and specializes in titles like Pokemon, Assassin's Creed, The Sims, and more. Basically, she loves all games that aren't sports or fighting titles! In her spare time, Sam likes to live like Stardew Valley by cooking and baking, growing vegetables, and enjoying life in the countryside.