God of War Ragnarok, one of the most awaited games this year, has been leaked. The upcoming action RPG from Santa Monica Studio is set for an official launch on November 9. However, a US-based retailer is said to have started selling the game over a week early, leading to a spate of spoilers and video clips on social media, giving away several crucial moments from the game, including the full face-off between series protagonist Kratos and the Norse god of lightning, Thor — which was heavily teased as one of the key USPs of the game. God of War Ragnarok appears to be the latest AAA game to have been exposed to early leaks, following GTA 6.
On October 30, God of War Ragnarok director Cory Barlog took to Twitter to confirm that an unnamed retailer started selling copies of the game two weeks before its release. “Just so disappointing,” Barlog wrote.
“Sorry to everyone that you have to dodge the spoilers if you want to play the game fresh,” Barlog said. “Just so beyond frustrated. Feel terrible for the team. This whole ordeal is incredibly stressful for us all.”
Given the nature of the leaks, and considering how it affects developers as well as fans when it comes to the overall gaming experience, ABP Live won’t be sharing any clips or spoilers that have already surfaced on the Internet in this article.
Even the developing firm, Santa Monica Studio, released a statement on Twitter. “We ask that you please be considerate of the many fans who do not want to accidentally see clips, gameplay, or narrative spoilers and avoid sharing them wider,” the company said.
Santa Monica Studio added, “We strongly advise that you mute any keywords or hashtags associated with the game until release day.”
In September, dozens of video clips from the much-awaited GTA 6 were leaked on fan-dedicated platform GTAForums. The videos revealed a lot of details on the upcoming game, such as the introduction of a female protagonist, a Vice City-based map, and NPC interactions, among others. While the leaks sent a fresh wave of excitement down fan forums, they could have proven detrimental to the development of GTA 6, possibly delaying the release window.
In its response, Rockstar attributed “network intrusion” by a third party as the cause behind the leak. “We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto,” the New York City-based developer said in a statement.
Despite worries that the leak might delay the release of GTA 6, Rockstar assured that it doesn’t anticipate any “disruption” to the development on its ongoing projects as well as live game services. No release timeline has been announced for GTA 6 as of yet.
God of War Ragnarok will release on November 9 on PS4 and PS5.