God of War

God of War is an American video game franchise developed by Santa Monica Studio for Sony, beginning with God of War in 2005, which follows Kratos, a Spartan warrior turned demigod, through a violent quest for vengeance against the gods of Greek mythology after being tricked into killing his own family by the god of war, Ares. The original trilogy of games, released across the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, was praised for its cinematic quick time event combat and elaborate mythological set pieces, and the franchise was substantially reinvented with God of War in 2018, which relocated Kratos to Norse mythology, introduced his son Atreus as a companion character, and shifted the storytelling toward a more restrained father son relationship, a reinvention widely credited within the games industry as a successful creative reset of an established franchise. That installment and its 2022 sequel, God of War Ragnarok, were both major critical and commercial successes, and the franchise as a whole has sold more than 51 million units worldwide, alongside novels, comic books and a television series in development.