During the E3 Coliseum livestream Sony Santa Monica Studio Head Shannon Studstill gave an interesting piece of information about the inception of the new God of War game for PS4.

Studstill explained that that a lot of people thought God of War needed to "rest and breathe" after the release of God of War: Ascension, but she felt that there was so much more that the studio could tell in terms of story. At that time, we had seen only one dimension of Kratos.

As the studio was at that crossroads, it was really apparent to her that the franchise really needed a new beginning, and someone who could tell that new beginning. In her mind, there were two people able to retell the story and pivot the franchise in a way that would be a compelling experience for the fans.

One of those two was David Jaffe, the father of the franchise, Game Director of God of War and Creative Director of God of War II. Jaffe was pretty busy at that time, so second person that immediately came to Studstill's mind was Cory Barlog, with whom she was still in contact.

They had lunch, she had the opportunity to see the new Cory, since they hadn't actually seen each other for a while. Barlog had been around the world working with different creatives, and he really "resonated" with Studstill. She walked away from that lunch feeling that "this is going to work."

God of War will release in early 2018 exclusively for PS4. If you want to see more, you can check out the new trailer, a new batch of screenshots, and new info directly from Cory Barlog.