God Of War Ragnarok Producer Reacts To Game Leaking Early: “Completely F**king Stupid”

God of War Ragnarok releases in November, but at least one retailer began selling the game early, and that means spoilers about the highly anticipated PlayStation game are out there. Cory Barlog, who directed 2018’s God of War and produced Ragnarok, voiced his frustration over this in a series of tweets recently.

“A retailer selling the game nearly TWO WEEKS before release. Just so disappointing,” Barlog said. “Sorry to everyone that you have to dodge the spoilers if you want to play the game fresh. Completely f**king stupid you have to do this. This is not at all how any of us at [Santa Monica Studio] wanted things to go.”

Barlog said this situation makes him see the merit in having “just an installer” on the physical disc of a video game, so that anyone who obtained an early copy wouldn’t necessarily be able to actually play the game. Some games do this, like Modern Warfare II, which apparently comes with just 70MB of data on the disc and then requires a 100GB download to actually play the game.

In a follow-up tweet, Barlog said he doesn’t actually believe physical video games should release as “just an installer.” He made that comment out of frustration with the Ragnarok leak situation, he said. “

“To be clear, I was expressing my frustration… not advocating for that at all. Not the future i want as a gamer or dev. Just so beyond frustrated. Feel terrible for the team. This whole ordeal is incredibly stressful for us all. Mental health break time,” he said.

It’s not immediately clear which retailer sold Ragnarok earlier or why, but this kind of thing happens regularly. With games on the size and scale of Ragnarok, millions of discs are shipped around the world to all number of retailers big and small. The probability that some of the many millions of copies shipped to retailers make their way into the public’s hands ahead of time, for whatever reason, is greater than zero.

Santa Monica Studio also put out a statement in response to the leaks. “We are doing our best to limit the exposure of unsanctioned footage and screenshots, but the reality is that we cannot catch everything,” the developer said. It also advised players seeking to avoid spoilers to mute keywords and hashtags associated with God of War.

“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 developer said.

Before this, spoiler-y screenshots from Ragnarok leaked onto the internet.

The first reviews for God of War Ragnarok will begin to appear online Thursday, November 3, at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET, according to those with early access to the game.

GameSpot’s recent God of War Ragnarok preview based on the first few hours of the game said the game feels familiar to the 2018 title, featuring “no major changes, additions, or subtractions that upend the way it feels or plays.” Tamoor Hussain here at GameSpot said Ragnarok is “doing all the right things,” saying he feels confident the game will be an “enjoyable experience” in the end.

“What remains to be seen is whether it can go beyond this and elevate the experience further. Since Sony Santa Monica said Ragnarok will be the conclusion of Kratos’s Norse myth, expectations are understandably high,” Hussain said.

Ragnarok launches on November 9 for PS4 and PS5. It was also recently confirmed that the game has resolution and performance modes, including 120fps.