There has been a lot of animosity between fans and the developers of God of War Ragnarök over the game’s release date. At one point it got so bad that people at Sony Santa Monica were unwanted harassment from online dwellers. After delaying the game from its 2021 initial release date, the sequel to the daddiest game of 2018 is finally coming on November 9th, 2022. But thanks to a slip-up from Sony themselves, it appears Ragnarök may have kept fans waiting a little longer, but only by two days.
Sony tweeted out a short trailer for Ragnarök inviting players to pre-order one of the game’s many different editions (some of which have a hammer!) and forgot to give the trailer a quality check. “Pre-order now 11.11.2022” reads the end of the trailer. This is two days past the officially announced release date.
Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier revealed some insider info on a ResetEra thread about the change:
“I heard after the announcement that it was indeed planned for 11/11/22, and that the sudden release change to 11/9/22 was why they bumped back the announcement from June 30 to the week after. Not 100% sure why they moved it. I think it was more of a logistical thing rather than anything to do with Starfield.”
The June 30th announcement Schreier is referring to was the rumored date Sony would reveal the Ragnarök release date. This theory started with a prominent leaker in the industry tweeting out a cryptic GIF of Kratos with binary code that translated to thirty. When the 30th came and went, and no announcement was made, fans got frustrated, with the leaker saying that the announcement was moved back for unknown reasons.
Schreier can add a little more insight, linking the announcement being pushed back to a sudden change in release date. The real question is what led to the release date being brought up two days. Most games release on Tuesdays, with big titles like God of War releasing on Friday. November 9, Ragnarok’s release date, is a Wednesday
One possibility is that Sony has award ambitions for God of War Ragnarök, which makes sense considering it has been one of the most anticipated games in the past two years. The Game Awards have a cutoff for eligibility in November, if a game releases after a certain date, then it will have to wait another full year to be eligible for awards. Moving up the Ragnarök release date could give media outlets more time to play the game and include it on nomination ballots. The official cut-off for this year's awards is November 19th.
If God of War Ragnarök does make its way into awards consideration, it will have a lot to compete with. Despite releasing in February, Elden Ring has remained at the top of the year's best games so far. Not to mention indie surprises like Citizen Sleeper and Stray having a chance at getting some love. Fans will have to wait a little longer to finally see how the Norse saga ends for Kratos and Atreus.
