The upcoming God of War Ragnarokone of the biggest PlayStation games of the year, isn’t due out until November 9, but over the past 24 hours video and social media sites have been inundated with clips of people playing their way through the entire game.
We wrote a similar story last week, but it was relatively minor in comparison; Some people reviewing the game had accidentally shared their screenshots, and while some of them might have been able to suggest specific things that were going to happen, most were just very pretty.
However, this is the whole game being out there over a week before release. The game is believed to have leaked when a store in the US, already in stock, accidentally started selling copies early, which is a tale as old as time in this genre of news. Director Cory Barlog is understandably a bit disappointed:
Given how easy it is to come across footage at the moment – some YouTube videos have done so millions of views already – developers Santa Monica Studio have issued a statement asking everyone to be considerate of fans who don’t want the game spoiled but also more practical that those fans may be trying to control much of the internet to keep away for the game next week:
As we get closer to launch, it’s important for our studio to preserve the God of War Ragnarök experience for players who want to enjoy the game for the first time without spoilers.
We ask that you be considerate of the many fans who may not wish to accidentally see clips, gameplay, or narrative spoilers and avoid sharing them further.
We do our best to limit the disclosure of unauthorized footage and screenshots, but the reality is we can’t capture everything.
For those of you who don’t want to risk watching anything before launch, we highly recommend muting any keywords or hashtags associated with the game until release day.
We appreciate the support you have shown us more than we can say. We can assure you that it will be worth experiencing the game for yourself when it releases in less than two weeks on November 9th.
Many Thanks
Santa Monica Studio
While There’s always some very constructive discussion about how “spoiler culture” has shaped discussion of our favorite games, shows, and moviesthe God of War Games are plodding single-player adventures where seeing the story unfold is half the reason people play them. If that’s you, you might want to take Sony’s advice and just mute everything for the next week!
