Santa Monica Studio has delayed God of War Laufey by roughly three months, moving the PS5 exclusive from February 16 to May 20, 2027. The studio announced the change on X earlier today, and the only explanation it gave is that it needs extra time for finishing touches. It's a bit of a surprise, since the game was only around three months out and pre-orders opened back in late September. The Standard Edition sells for $69.99, the Digital Deluxe Edition for $79.99, and Sony also put up a £129.99 Collector Box for sale with the old February 16 date attached. Here's the studio's full statement:

Santa Monica StudioSince the reveal of God of War Laufey in June, we've been deeply grateful to see so much excitement for Faye's journey through the Everywhen. We don't take for granted the trust placed in our studio to make an extraordinary experience worthy of the passion and dedication of our fans. With this in mind, we've made the decision to delay God of War Laufey's release to May 20th, 2027. We will make the most of each moment until then by putting in the finishing touches and pushing the game to its fullest potential. On behalf of everyone on the team, we appreciate your patience and we'll be back to share more updates soon!

Anyone hunting for fan-made PC ports of console games now has one place to look. RecompLauncher, from the developer behind RecompStore, a homebrew store for jailbroken PS5 consoles, is live as a catalog of community recompilations, listing a hefty 192 PC projects at the time of writing. Many of these are static recompilations, which turn a console game's code into a native PC program instead of emulating the original hardware. The list spans several Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox generations, with Zelda 64, God of War III, and Skate 3 among the familiar names, and it can be filtered by Windows, macOS, and Linux support. Not every entry is finished or downloadable yet, though. Apparently, the project started out as a PC expansion of RecompStore and picked up its current name after community feedback.

The launcher itself isn't out yet. Its download page marks it as coming soon to Windows, and promises to install recomps, pull updates from each developer's GitHub, and set games up from the user's own disc image or ROM. Titles available on both platforms can also be configured once on PC and then sent over to RecompStore on a PS5. No game files are included, and the site says every game needs a legally owned copy. Videocardz points out that Quiver Launcher already offers a downloadable app with install and update management, so RecompLauncher isn't the first to try this. We have seen a huge boom in native fan ports recently, including a Driveclub recomp and the original Uncharted trilogy, both of which also need the player's own game dump.

Sony has opened pre-orders for the God of War Laufey Collector Box on its UK PlayStation Store, priced at £129.99. Despite the name, the box does not include the game in any form, and the store page states plainly that God of War Laufey is sold separately. Buyers instead get a light-up resin statue of Faye, a 51-card Oracle Deck with custom illustrations on every card, and a mini artbook of concept art put together by the development team. Orders are capped at one per customer, and the listing carries a February 16, 2027 date, the same day the game launches on PlayStation 5.

The Faye-led spin-off was first tipped back in April, and Santa Monica Studio confirmed the February release at San Diego Comic-Con in July. The Standard Edition sells for $69.99 and the Digital Deluxe Edition for $79.99, and there is no word of a traditional collector's edition that bundles the game. That is quite a change from God of War Ragnarök, whose $199.99 Collector's Edition came with access to the game on both PS4 and PS5. Of course, Sony isn't alone here, since Rockstar's $399.99 Vice City Collection box for GTA 6 also leaves the game out. It looks like players who want both the statue and the game will have to buy them separately.

A new open-source project called AnyPS5 aims to run PlayStation 5 games natively on Windows and Linux, without emulation. Its GitHub page describes it as a tool that relinks PS5 executables into the host system's native format and reimplements the console's system libraries for dynamic linking, similar in concept to Wine or Proton. Since the PS5 already runs on x86-64 Zen 2 hardware, close to a modern PC, AnyPS5 skips CPU emulation and recompiles shaders into SPIR-V for Vulkan instead.

As for progress, the developer says execution now reaches a game's main function, with exception handling built out, and the shader recompiler produces SPIR-V that validates cleanly. The repo's status notes claim a real game reaches its logo, main menu, and some gameplay with audio, though there's no public build to verify that yet. No releases exist, and the developer says one won't go out until a game fully launches through the tool. It's tempting to think about God of War Laufey or GTA 6 running on a PC through AnyPS5, but that's not realistic anytime soon. AnyPS5 hasn't run a full game yet, and going by how long PS4 and PS3 compatibility work took, that tends to take years.

It seems as though God of War studio, Santa Monica Studio, is slated for a busy time in the coming months and years, with recent rumors suggesting that there is another God of War game on the horizon, some even claiming that it may be announced as soon as April 2026. Not all that much is known about the new God of War game, but according to reporting by MP1st and Tom Henderson on the Insider Gaming podcast, it will not follow Kratos. Instead, the new spin-off, which does not yet have a name, will feature Týr and Faye, the erstwhile Norse god of war and Kratos's deceased wife. This suggests that the spin-off will be a prequel to the recent God of War 2018 and Ragnarök.

The reports make mention of a talking sword, which will apparently be Merlin from English legend, as well as elements from Japanese, Chinese, and possibly other East-Asian mythologies. According to Henderson, the next "mainline" God of War game was meant to be announced at an April Sony State of Play, and it is assumed that the spin-off with Faye will be the next mainline installment in the franchise. This news comes not too long after Santa Monica Studio and Sony announced that a remake of the original God of War trilogy was in the works at Santa Monica.

In late 2025, screenshots surfaced of a cancelled multiplayer, live-service God of War game that had been in development at Bluepoint Games, the studio responsible for a number of high-profile remakes, like Demon Souls and Shadow of the Colossus. It seems as though that game's cancellation may have been a sign of the times for the Sony-owned studio, as the gaming giant recently confirmed that it has closed Bluepoint Games. According to Bloomberg, this studio's closure will affect 70 employees, who will be laid off at the time of the studio's closure in March 2026. This news comes amid a slew of closures and layoffs, including 40 workers at Ubisoft Toronto losing their jobs to cost-cutting measures and NetEase closing an entire studio before it had even released or announced a game. Game Developer reports that Sony confirmed the studio's closure and issued a statement explaining that the decision to close the studio was made following a business review.

"Bluepoint Games is an incredibly talented team and their technical expertise has delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community. We thank them for their passion, creativity and craftsmanship." -Sony via Game Developer.

Today's PlayStation State of Play has already seen a handful of exciting announcements, like the release date for Game Freak's upcoming Souls-like RPG, but fans of the God of War franchise are likely having an extra-special day, with two announcements coming out of the event. Firstly, God of War: Sons of Sparta, a 2.5D Metroidvania telling Kratos's origin story, has officially launched and is available for the PlayStation 5. Sons of Sparta follows Kratos during his days training as a warrior at the Agoge with his brother Deimos. Sons of Sparta was written by the same Santa Monica Studio team that was responsible for God of War 2018 and God of War Ragnarök, while the development was handled by Mega Cat Studios, a studio packed with experienced developers who have by now worked on a slew of Metroidvanias. The game promises dynamic combat with the classic Spartan sword and shield as well as a variety of "Gifts of Olympus," to spice things up.

The 2018 soft reboot of the God of War franchise saw Kratos face off against the gods of Norse mythology, but, as reports from earlier this year claimed, Sony was working on a multiplayer God of War game that we now know would have taken place in Ancient Greece, thanks to MP1st's insider sources. The supposed leak of screenshots of the cancelled God of War multiplayer project would have seemingly taken place before the events of God of War 3, since Hades was still supposedly actively involved in the game's events. The unreleased God of War game was being developed by Bluepoint Games, the same development studio behind Demon Souls and a handful of game remasters, including Titanfall on the Xbox 360.

Further details about the game, including how a multiplayer God of War game would look, are still unknown, but the screenshots provided by MP1st's source reveal that the game would be a return to Ancient Greece—or a territory conquered by the Greek empire. The game was seemingly still in very early development, but it is evident from the screenshots that the halls, rooms, and caverns were being designed for multiple players. Curiously, it seems as though some assets—weapons and statues that bear an uncanny resemblance to warriors and weapons from the Norse arcs—were also borrowed from the 2018 God of War reboot, although it's unclear if these were simply substitutes that would later be replaced or if they'd actually make it into the final game.

As revealed in today's State of Play, the God of War 20th Anniversary limited edition DualSense controller launches this October. Designed to evoke the legendary Ghost of Sparta's ashen skin and scarlet tattoo, the controller pays homage to Kratos, who has taken on countless roles and endless challenges across Ancient Greece and the Nine Realms. Join us in celebrating two decades of God of War with a controller that reflects Kratos' journey spanning four console generations, two handheld systems, and more than a dozen games, beginning with Santa Monica Studio's God of War for the PlayStation 2 console.

"In honor of God of War's 20th anniversary this year, we were thrilled by the opportunity to celebrate this milestone with a new DualSense controller design. When we were deciding how best to embody the series, we immediately thought the form of the controller lent itself perfectly to Kratos' omega tattoo. No matter which God of War game you're playing, the shape of his red ink against the gray of his ash-covered skin is one of the most iconic elements of Kratos' look across both Greek and Norse sagas. Our team made sure to represent both of these key tones in the color selection for the controller to make every aspect an authentic homage to the design that has defined Kratos for over two decades. We hope fans enjoy the controller and can't thank everyone enough for all of the support you've shown Santa Monica Studio over the years!" - Associate Art Director Dela Longfish from Santa Monica Studio.

Every year, Valve holds The Steam Game Awards, a community-driven initiative to recognize the best games that were launched in that year. Valve has just released the results for the 2024 Steam Game Awards, which are determined by community vote—as opposed to events like The Game Awards, which feature a jury selection—and split into individual categories. This year, though, the overall winner for Game of the Year was Black Myth Wukong, which beat out other finalists: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Balatro, and Helldivers 2 for top spot. Game of the Year wasn't Wukong's only victory, either, with the game also taking home the "Outstanding Story-Rich Game Award," which seems logical given its overall victory, and the cleverly named "Best Game You Suck At Award," which is meant to highlight the best difficult game of the year. In this category, Black Myth Wukong was up against Dragon Ball Z Sparkling Zero, The Finals, Ghost of Tsushima, and Tekken 8, which is again a very diverse mix of games and genres, so it's somewhat interesting to see a narrative-driven game like Wukong come out ahead here.

The rest of the Steam Game Awards 2024 was less of a one-man show, with Metro Awakening VR taking Best VR Game of the Year, Elden Ring nabbing the Labor of Love Award, and God of War Ragnarök taking the Best Game on Steam Deck Award. Helldivers 2 won Better with Friends, while Silent Hill 2 took home the Outstanding Visual Style Award, Liar's Bar won Most Innovative Gameplay, Red Dead Redemption won Best Soundtrack Award, and Farming Simulator 25 was crowned with the Sit Back and Relax award, beating out the likes or Webfishing, House Flipper 2, and Tiny Glade. One of the more surprising "minor" awards winners here is God of War Ragnarök taking home Best Game on Steam Deck, since you often hear in discourse around the Steam Deck that it's not suitable for AAA gaming, and God of War is only two years old at the time of writing, meaning it is still very demanding, with an NVIDIA GTX 1060 6 GB quoted as the minimum recommended GPU to play the game.

Intel has released the latest version of its Arc GPU Graphics drivers, the version 101.6083 Beta. The new driver update brings Game On support on Intel Arc A-series GPUs and Intel Core Ultra CPUs with Intel Arc GPUs for Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Expansion, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO, and Silent Hill 2 games, increases performance in games like God of War Ragnarök, as well as fixes an issue seen in FC25, where Arc A-series GPUs may exhibit intermittent green corruption in the game menu and during gameplay.

According to Intel's release notes, the new driver update improves performance in God of War Ragnarök game by up to 9 percent average at 1080p resolution with Ultra settings and up to 34 percent average at 1440p resolution with Ultra settings. There are still several known issues which will hopefully be fixed with the next WHQL driver update.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6083 Beta

God of War Ragnarök has been one of the most highly anticipated PC launches in recent history, although the launch has been somewhat controversial. After launching on PC via Steam and Epic Games on September 19, players discovered that the single-player narrative-driven action-adventure game would require an online PSN account in order to play. This account requirement somewhat predictably resulted in significant backlash, which, in turn, resulted in a third-party mod to remove the account requirement.

Shortly after the launch of God of War Ragnarök, the game's Steam page became inundated with negative reviews because of the PlayStation Network account required to play the game. Less than a week after launch, God of War's rating on Steam is a solid "Mixed," with only 69% positive reviews. That is compared to Metacritic's user reviews that place the PS5 version of the game at 8.1/10. Shortly after the review bombs started, though, a free mod called NoPSSDK appeared on Nexus Mods and GitHub that removes the PSN account requirement from God of War Ragnarök.

Today Intel released its latest Arc GPU graphics drivers, with version 101.6077 beta hitting our servers. This latest version brings game-ready support for titles like Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, Final Fantasy XVI, Frostpunk 2, and God of War Ragnarok. Besides adding support for latest titles, the 101.6077 beta drivers also fixed issues like corruption on certain reflective surfaces during gameplay of The Last of Us Part I (DX12), and corrupted lines on certain textures during gameplay of Age of Empires IV (DX12). Interestingly, few issues persist like Diablo IV (DX12) intermittently crashing while toggling Ray Tracing settings during gameplay, and Doom Eternal (VK) exhibiting intermittent flickering corruption in the game menu and during gameplay. Few more notes are included in the changelog and known issues, which can be seen below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6077 Beta.

More than 600 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. This week, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, Enotria: The Last Song, FINAL FANTASY XVI, and God of War Ragnarök all launch with day-one support for DLSS 3, maximizing frame rates for GeForce RTX gamers! And Frostpunk 2 arrives September 20th with DLSS 3. Read on to learn more.

God of War Ragnarök Arrives September 19th, Supporting DLSS 3 & Reflex
From Santa Monica Studio and brought to PC in partnership with Jetpack Interactive comes God of War Ragnarök, an epic and heartfelt journey that follows Kratos and Atreus as they struggle with holding on and letting go. The sequel to the critically acclaimed God of War (2018), God of War Ragnarök picks up with Fimbulwinter well underway. Kratos and Atreus must journey to each of the Nine Realms in search of answers as Odin's forces in Asgard prepare for a prophesied battle that will end the world. Along the way, they will explore stunning, mythical landscapes, and face fearsome enemies in the form of Norse gods and monsters. As the threat of Ragnarök grows ever closer, Kratos and Atreus must choose between the safety of their family and the safety of the realms.

AMD today released a preview driver that provides optimization for a couple of new games, and fixes a few issues. Preview Driver version 24.20.11.01 adds optimization for "God of War: Ragnarök," "Frostpunk 2," and the DirectX 11 mode of "Sims 4." It also extends Radeon Boost support for "Final Fantasy XVI." HYPR-Tune support is extended to "Black Myth: Wukong," "God of War Ragnarök," and "Creatures of Ava." HYPR-Tune now autoconfigures Anti-Lag 2 in "Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut."

The drivers also address intermittent driver crashes when playing "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2," including crashes when loading maps on RX 5000 series GPUs. Driver crashes on "Final Fantasy XVI" have also been fixed. The bug that causes overly dark shadows in "Black Myth: Wukong" with medium-high global illumination settings, has been fixed. AV falling out of sync during AV1 codec playback has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin Preview Driver 24.20.11.01

Welcome to the second half of September and what is nothing but a jam packed week of new game releases. The week kicks off with an almost two-year old PlayStation game that has something to do with Norse mythology gets launched on PC, although it does come with the DLC included and it's not capped at 60 FPS. As for the rest of this week's new games, we have a packed week starting with a lot of spell casting, another PlayStation game, but this time we're taking a JRPG of the highest rank, which is followed by a souls-like RPG game. Next up we have Dr Dr, which oddly enough isn't German at all, followed by another highly anticipated game that involves frozen punks. If there's nothing you like this week, you're most likely not a gamer.

God of War Ragnarök / This week's AAA release / Thursday 19 September
The sequel to the critically acclaimed God of War (2018), God of War Ragnarök picks up with Fimbulwinter well underway. Kratos and Atreus must journey to each of the Nine Realms in search of answers as Odin's forces in Asgard prepare for a prophesied battle that will end the world. Along the way, they will explore stunning, mythical landscapes, and face fearsome enemies in the form of Norse gods and monsters. As the threat of Ragnarök grows ever closer, Kratos and Atreus must choose between the safety of their family and the safety of the realms. Steam link

NVIDIA has released its latest GeForce WHQL Game Ready drivers, version 561.09, which brings optimizations for FINAL FANTASY XVI and God of War Ragnarök games, including support for DLSS 3 technology. It also adds launch support for EA SPORTS FC 25 and Frostpunk 2 games. The new GeForce 561.09 WHQL Game Ready drivers also add new GeForce Optimal Settings for Black Myth: Wukong, F1 Manager 2024, and Star Wars Outlaws games. Unfortunately, it does not fix any previously seen gaming bugs, but it does add several general bug fixes, including a fix for GeForce Experience where Performance Monitoring overlay could stop refreshing GPU information, a fix for NVIDIA App, where game filters may be missing when invoking the NVIDIA Overlay in-game, and a fix for performance issues in some workloads with Chaos V-Ray. Interestingly, there are no listed open issues with the latest driver either.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 561.09 WHQL Game Ready

A long time before the debates, the director of God of War, Cory Barlog, already had his eyes set on the Venom-famed actor Tom Hardy to play Kratos in a live-action adaptation of the God of War game. In a video that aired six years ago, Cory Barlog expressed his thoughts on who should play Kratos on the silver screen. God of War is one of the most popular gaming titles, making waves since 2005.

Now, the God of War team is planning a live-action adaptation. Although it's still underway, the debate is fierce with some suggesting ex-WWE superstar Dwayne Johnson for his masculine looks and aggressive temperament, and others, the God of War's Kratos' voice actor Christopher Judge. Some even suggest Jason Momoa plays the role.

Team Asobi's Astro Bot was released for PlayStation 5 on September 6, 2024, and it received many positive reviews and critics from fans. Recently, Team Asobi president Nicholas Doucet explained that he directly approached God of War's Cory Barlog and Eric Williams about getting Kratos' cameo for the game. And was surprised to see they were excited about what he was going to do with Kratos in Astro Bot.

Cory Barlog explained that for a dramatic game like the God of War IP, you have to be very careful with the world, and he was excited to see what Team Asobi would do with Kratos in Astro Bot, something different from the way it is in God of War at least. Nicholas said their expectations were to get 50 cameos, but they were shocked that they almost got everyone. The PlayStation partners expressed their support for Astro Bot and were excited to see their characters used in the game.

God of War Ragnarök will be coming to PC on September 19, 2024! Santa Monica Studio's development partner for God of War (2018) on PC, Jetpack Interactive, is back to help deliver the PC version of God of War Ragnarök. Alongside the release date, we'd also like to share a selection of the features that will be available (Account for PlayStation Network is required).

Unlocked framerates
Experience the epic conclusion of Kratos and Atreus' journey in the Norse saga at peak performance. Unlocked framerates and the option of true 4K resolution expand the full potential of the cinematic no-cut camera as you travel through the stunning vistas of the Nine Realms to do battle against deadly foes in the forms of Norse gods and monsters.

We want you to have the happiest of holidays for 2023, so we've put together the most festive sale. It has thousands of discounted games, limitless 33% Epic Coupons, an Epic Rewards boost to 10%, 17 free games, and free cosmetics for everyone. The event runs from today (Dec. 13, 2023) 11 AM ET (4 PM GMT / 5 PM CET), to Jan. 10, 2024 11 AM ET (4 PM GMT / 5 PM CET) Read about the highlights below!

Thousands of titles on sale, limitless 33% Epic Coupons, and an Epic Rewards boost to 10%!
In addition to the thousands of discounted titles, from today (Dec. 13, 2023) 11 AM ET (4 PM GMT / 5 PM CET), to Jan. 10, 2024 11 AM ET (4 PM GMT / 5 PM CET), any eligible transactions at, above, or adding up to $14.99 or higher will have a 33% Epic Coupon automatically applied at checkout (see Terms and Conditions). The Epic Coupon is limitless, so you'll receive one following each eligible transaction completed for the duration of the event. We'll also be boosting our Epic Rewards program to 10% for the duration of Holiday Sale.

Dear players - thank you for the tremendous support we received so far on Atlas Fallen! From your enthusiastic comments on our video teasers online and in person at PAX EAST to the positive previews from critics, we're grateful and honored to have you excited to play our game. Our goal has always been to create a memorable RPG experience in a unique setting, with exciting gameplay and the option for fully playable seamless co-op with a friend.

We'd love to give the game some extra time which will allow us to deliver the best possible version of Atlas Fallen. To achieve this, we have made the difficult decision to delay the worldwide launch of Atlas Fallen to AUGUST 10, 2023.

Atlas Fallen, the epic fantasy action-RPG from Focus Entertainment's studio Deck13 Interactive, is excited to open pre-orders following the recent announcement of its May 16 release date. Get a feel of the high sensations to come in the game where you battle legendary creatures in super-powered combat with today's captivating Gameplay Reveal Trailer.

Take on a heroic journey through a variety of breath-taking environments, swiftly gliding through the desert landscapes of a vast sand-covered world. Explore ancient ruins and unearth the mysteries and secrets of a fallen society. Fight a corrupt god and extraordinary beasts thanks to the divine power of your shape-shifting weapon. Unlock powerful skills and abilities to build a unique move-set and rise as the champion who will liberate the people of Atlas.

Steam's Spring 2023 sale has kicked off, offering a bunch of PC games at discount. To celebrate its first year anniversary, Valve is also giving a 10 percent discount for the Steam Deck during the Spring sale. There are plenty of great titles on sale, and some of the popular include Forza Horizon 5, God of War, Battlefield 2042, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Total War Warhammer, Red Dead Redemption 2, and more.

There are several franchises on discount as well, including The Witcher, Battlefield, Borderlands, Fallout, Resident Evil, The Elder Scrolls, Civilization, Hitman, Doom, Far Cry, and others. As noted, the Steam Deck is also on sale with 10 percent discount. This means that if you are in the US, you can get the base version for just $359 while the 512 GB version is down to $584.

Mythical landscapes and fearsome Norse gods and monsters lay in wait as Kratos and Atreus explore the Nine Realms in the highly anticipated God of War Ragnarök, coming this November. The follow up to PlayStation's critically acclaimed God of War title is certain to capture the imagination and excitement of gamers, and it has inspired Seagate to offer a new special edition external hard disk drive (HDD) Game Drive featuring one-of-a-kind artwork inspired by the game.

Adding to Seagate's expanding line of PlayStation storage for gamers, the new officially licensed Seagate special edition God of War Ragnarök Game Drive for PlayStation 5 (PS5) and PlayStation 4 (PS4) consoles features a stunning design based on the title and customizable LED RGB light. The external 2 TB HDD expands storage capacity letting players spend less time managing console storage and more time gaming.