The God of War Ragnarok reveal drama, explained

Anticipation for God of War Ragnarok has reached a fever pitch of late. Over the past four weeks, we've seen delay murmurings squashed as whispers of a release date reveal take its place, all with some playful social media postings from Sony Santa Monica's Cory Barlog thrown in for good measure – the God of War news machine is looking like a whack-a-mole cabinet of late. It's all a tad confusing, so here's a brief timeline to catch you up.

Before Summer Game Fest even kicked off, a prominent leaker teased that we could be getting a release date reveal at the show. What actually happened was a Twitter account that shares PSN database updates revealed that the God of War Ragnarok placeholder release date shifted to December 31 from September 30, sparking panic. 

We then got a report that the next God of War game was moving to next year entirely, though a separate report soon cast doubt on that. God of War Ragnarok never did show up at Summer Game Fest or PlayStation's State of Play stream, though fans got some solace as Bloomberg reported that the game was on track for a November release, with a date reveal coming in June – beats waiting until next year, right?

Enter Barlog

Sony Santa Monica, for its part, has been taking the whole thing in good humour. God of War Ragnarok producer Cory Barlog returned from a three-month Twitter hiatus to make light of the conflicting reports. This led to some fans requesting updates, which in turn led to some more Barlog jokes.

That just about brings us up to the recent round of reports. There had been some hope among fans that we'd get a God of War Ragnarok reveal on June 30 as newly popular leaker The Snitch posted a God of War gif with the caption "11110". That number could translate to 30 in binary, so fans speculated that news could have dropped on that date, which would fall in line with Bloomberg's report. Another serial leaker added more fuel to that fire by saying the reveal would be slim, not even including a trailer.

The reveal never ended up happening on that date, with a Barlog tweet suggesting that wouldn't be the case anyway. "Dear all," Barlog said, "if it were up to me I would share all the information when I know about it. But it is not up to me. So please, be patient. I promise things will be shared at the earliest possible moment they can be. We make games for you. We get to make games because of you."

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has also weighed in, sharing that a June 30 reveal was on the cards at one point, though he also believes Barlog's tweets paint a picture of those plans shifting. Regardless, the game is still reportedly planned for this year despite the furore. 

Barlog has also confirmed that God of War Ragnarok is not delayed in reply to one fan on Twitter. He then followed up that tweet with this, which seems to be going down well:

One fan also chanced his luck by asking Barlog for a release date reveal as it's their birthday – we can only imagine the state of their direct messages on Twitter right now:

It remains to be seen when we'll learn the God of War Ragnarok release date, though opportunities to market the game are dwindling if the plan remains to launch this year. Gamescom isn't too far away and dedicated online reveals are becoming increasingly common post-pandemic, though options are slowly running out.

More? Here's everything we know about God of War Ragnarok if you want to stay in the loop.