Sony's event on Tuesday had barely wrapped up the presentation of God of War: Laufey when God of War creator David Jaffe took the opportunity to harshly criticise the game, stating in no uncertain terms that "it's terrible" before going on to assert that it won't sell very well and that it doesn't feel like God of War.
Now he's getting some unexpected support from Mike Ybarra, a former Xbox executive (though today he's mostly critical of anything related to Microsoft) and later head of Blizzard for many years. He writes on X that it's a "weird take for the IP," and that he agrees with Jaffe, adding: "I couldn't help but wonder what I was even seeing..."
When someone asked him to elaborate, Ybarra wrote that the new protagonist Faye is one of the main reasons he doesn't like God of War: Laufey, drawing a parallel to Halo 5, where Spartan Locke replaced Master Chief, something fans hated:
"Fundamentally people want to play the main protagonist in the IP. It's a Studios job to build a strong emotional connection between the main character and the player. In this case, Kratos.
"Remember when Halo 5 had Locke for 12 of the 15 missions - same thing. Didn't go over well. People want to play and feel the power of Master Chief."
It's still unclear when God of War: Laufey will be released, other than Sony saying it will happen "soon." As we reported earlier today, Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier believes this means before 2028 but probably not this year.