God of War on PS5? Job postings suggest next-gen sequel

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Good news for fans of 2018's God of War: it looks like a development team is being put together for a sequel to the critically-acclaimed action game.

As spotted by GamesRadar, Developer Santa Monica posted job listings last week for a number of roles across its programming, art, design, and tech art teams – with one listing clearly citing the God of War reboot. Applicants for Senior Combat Designer "Must have knowledge of God of War (2018) and be able to speak in depth about the combat systems, mechanics and enemies."

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A listing for Facial Blend Shape Character Artist also specifically mentions "next-gen video game platform experience" for the role: something that should whittle down prospective applicants to relatively few animators, given that the next generation of consoles have yet to launch.

The waters are muddied slightly with a Senior Gameplay Animator posting, which asks for someone "to help us push the boundaries of action and combat movement and set the bar for gameplay feel on the PS4".

Given the lead time needed to work on a game as large of God of War, we wouldn't expect a new title until after the Holiday 2020 release of the PS5. However, we could well see a cross-generation release that lands on both the current and incoming PlayStation consoles.

You, me, and DLC

We fully expected a God of War sequel to come at some point, and despite concerns during development over the new direction of the iconic action series, the God of War reboot become an instant classic, with rave reviews and many calling it one of the best games of the year.

God of War director Corey Barlog had said there were originally plans for DLC for the 2018 reboot, but said they were halted for being "too ambitious". 

We heard a similar notion about the upcoming Breath of the Wild 2 game from Nintendo, which had so many DLC ideas it decided to roll them into a new title entirely.

The upgraded specs of the PlayStation 5 is likely to make for even bigger, grander worlds than the current generation of consoles. With the likes of God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild already creating games of massive scale, we can't wait to see how a developer like Sony Santa Monica is planning to up its game.

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