Sony Santa Monica Sony Santa Monica is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the sublime God of War. The studio has already released a heartfelt thank you video, and a free dynamic theme, with more treats on the way in the lead up to April 20.
Taken at face value, the free theme is a gorgeous bit of work that depicts Kratos and son Atreus sailing across the Lake of Nine – but eagle-eyed fans have spotted some important details lurking in plain sight that might just offer some clues as to what we can expect from the unannounced (but inevitable) sequel.
God of War fans on Reddit first noticed a series of Nordic runes on the boat that Kratos and boi are rowing in. After zooming in and brightening up the image to get a better look at them, it was possible to translate the runes into English.
Once translated, the runes say that “Ragnarok is coming.” Hoo, boy. As you’ll probably know if you played God of War (or are familiar with Norse lore), Ragnarok is an apocalyptic event that promises to be the the final destruction of the world of Gods and men in a great conflict.
Ragnarok is referred to repeatedly in God of War, with it being heavily implied that the actions of Kratos and Atreus in the first game inadvertently set the dreaded event in motion.
Most fans seem to agree that Ragnarok and a grand showdown between Kratos and the biggest, baddest Norse Gods is where this new God of War franchise is headed, and so the inclusion of this message on the boat is very likely a deliberate tease from Sony Santa Monica – could the next entry be God of War: Ragnarok?
Sony/SIE Santa Monica StudiosWhile it’s fun to speculate, it’s very unlikely we’ll hear anything official about the further adventures of Kratos and Atreus for a while. There’s a slim hope that Sony Santa Monica might end the week’s anniversary celebrations with a tease for the future of God of War, but we’ll have to wait and see.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.