The massively successful God of War series, which performed astonishingly well in both the commercial and critical arenas, was created by a subsidiary of Sony Community Entertainment, Santa Monica Studio. There have recently been a series of layoffs at the studio, now culminating in the confirmed departure of God Of War III’s game director (and art director throughout the trilogy) Stig Asmussen.
The layoffs follow the cancellation of the studio’s planned new IP, which it has been speculated was to be spun off from a ‘secret message’ in God of War: Ascension, reading “When the Earth stops, the journey begins…”. Piecing this nugget together with the involvement in the project of Michael Angeli, TV screenwriter for Battlestar Galactica and Dark Angel, it looked as though some serious sci-fi goings on were headed our way. All confirmed as cancelled in late Februrary, Mr Asmussen is the latest casualty to wash up from the wreckage of Santa Monica Studio’s mysterious sinking ship.
