God of War Devs Cancelled IP 'Amazing Concept', Reveals Former PlayStation Boss

The ex-president of SIE Worldwide Studios has just revealed that he had to cancel a new game from God of War devs Santa Monica Studio… after having already invested a whopping $25 million into the project.

Games get cancelled all the time, unfortunately. Most of the time, they’re usually canned during conceptual phases, which is why we never end up hearing about them until years after the fact.

Sometimes, though, games are cancelled midway through development. Some are even cancelled close to the finish line. Most recently, Microsoft was criticised for scrapping several games that were, according to the teams behind them, borderline close to completion.

It is, however, very rare that you hear the exact sum that studios have invested into these cancelled projects.

Shuhei Yoshida, the former SIE Worldwide Studios president at Sony from 2008 to 2019, has just revealed that he had to cancel two projects during his time at the company, which had already accrued a combined, eye-watering $50 million in development costs.

One of these games was even being worked on by God of War developers Santa Monica Studio, although Yoshida specifies that the cancelled project was an entirely new IP.

Official image from God of War Ragnarök's Steam page, Sony

Thank you in advance to My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin for the original source (and to VGC for their article covering the topic).

“One was actually one of the internal games developed by Santa Monica Studios… Not [a] God of War game, a new IP. And it had a really amazing concept and very interesting gameplay ideas”, Yoshida revealed.

“So we supported [it for] many years, but after $25 million, they came to me and said that ‘we have to stop’. I do not exactly remember the reason – probably the team was not able to find the game. It was a great concept, great idea, but you know, the gameplay didn’t really come to be.”

Funnily enough, there was a false report earlier this year that Cory Barlog, the creative director at Santa Monica Studio, has been trying to get a new, sci-fi IP off the ground for some time.

Although the story was debunked not long after, industry veteran Jason Schreier later clarified that Santa Monica Studio is working on a new game that may “feel” like a new IP, but ultimately isn’t.

“I'll put it this way: it's not a new IP but it might feel like one. Maybe that's why people are confused. Please don't ask me more questions about this - if I wind up reporting more information at any point in the future it'll be in an article, not on a forum”, Schreier noted in a post on ResetEra.

“And that the sci-fi stuff (that people have apparently believed for years now?) is nonsense.”

This is mere speculation on my part, but I can’t help but wonder if Santa Monica Studio’s previous work on the cancelled $25 million project might be reworked into this mysterious upcoming project they’re cooking.

Guess we’ll simply have to wait until either they or Sony officially clues us in on what they’re up to.