Kratos is officially returning in the next God of War, and Laufey now has a release date

[Exoplanet Ranger]

Sony has confirmed that God of War Laufey will launch on PS5 on February 16, 2027, and Santa Monica Studio creative head Cory Barlog used a San Diego Comic-Con panel this weekend to confirm the next mainline God of War after Laufey will directly connect to its story and bring Kratos back as a playable protagonist. No further details were shared beyond that confirmation, but it puts to rest any lingering uncertainty about whether Laufey was a standalone spin-off or a genuine bridge to Kratos's next chapter

Laufey itself is the first mainline God of War entry to star someone other than Kratos, casting players as Faye, known formally as Laufey the Just, Kratos's Norse wife and the mother of Atreus, who dies in the events leading up to 2018's God of War. The synopsis describes Faye waking unexpectedly in the afterlife after her own funeral, discovering the protections she put in place for Kratos and Atreus are now at risk, and having to fight through a realm called the Everywhen where gods from across mythology are vying for power

Barlog explained the reasoning behind building an entire game around a supporting character rather than Kratos himself, saying he wanted to show an extension of the world where the characters players encounter are unexpected, with Laufey serving as both a continuation of what came before and preparation for what comes next. The game was originally revealed during a State of Play in June with more than 20 minutes of gameplay footage, and Sony confirmed earlier this month that Laufey will ship on physical disc, a detail that matters given the company's recent, widely criticized announcement that it will stop manufacturing new PlayStation discs starting in 2028

PlayStation confirms God of War Laufey release date and return of Kratos in next game | VGCwww.videogameschronicle.com

[Oscar_38]

Confirming Kratos returns after Laufey rather than leaving it ambiguous is a smart move, that uncertainty could have made some players treat Laufey as skippable when it's clearly meant to matter

[Holly78]

Playing as Faye specifically is such a bold structural choice for a mainline entry, curious how combat and mechanics differ now that Kratos himself isn't the one wielding the weapons

[RedKnight]

The Everywhen setting sounds like a fresh way to explore mythology beyond just Norse and Greek, mixing gods from across different pantheons vying for power in one afterlife realm

[Bright Hermit]

Getting confirmation this ships on physical disc is a small but real relief given how much backlash Sony's disc discontinuation announcement got, at least this specific game isn't caught in that transition

[BigDogCena41]

Barlog's framing of showing unexpected characters within a familiar world is an interesting design philosophy, curious if this becomes a template for future entries too rather than a one-off

[BretHart88]

February 2027 is a fair distance out still, but locking in a firm date this early suggests the team is confident in where development actually stands

[Ellie22]

Santa Monica Studio has earned a lot of trust with how they've handled this franchise's recent reinvention, confident this ends up being worth the wait regardless of how unconventional the Laufey premise sounds on paper

[LunarShade]

Excited to see how the Everywhen ties back into Kratos and Atreus's ongoing story once the direct sequel actually arrives, this feels like an ambitious two-part narrative structure

[Kane48]

This confirms Laufey was never really a spin-off at all, more like a deliberate first chapter of a longer story that circles back to Kratos, which changes how I'll approach playing it

[Rebecca86]

The detail that Faye dies before the 2018 game and this story unfolds in the afterlife is such a clever way to explore a character who was previously only ever referenced rather than seen