Santa Monica Studio is an LA-based developer founded in 1999. Outside of its first game, 2001's Kinetica, the studio has exclusively developed for its popular God of War series. They did act as a publisher/incubator for indie game studios, like 2012's Journey from Thathamecompany, but this was stopped in 2016.
SMS's most recent game is 2022's God of War Ragnarök - a cross-gen title and the only game they've shipped on PS5. Like the 2018 semi-reboot, it was a monumental critical and commercial success. It ties Astro Bot as the highest-rated first-party game PS5 game on Metacritic with 94 and is the fastest-selling first-party game in PlayStation history, selling 5.1 million units in its first week.
While Santa Monica Studio continued to support Ragnarök with a PS5 Pro patch, a PC version and a free Valhalla expansion, we don't know their next game. Currently, rumors predict a new IP, a Ragnarök sequel, a God of War 2005 remake, or a smaller game like SM: Miles Morales.
Many of these rumors could pan out to be true, but regardless of which comes first, there's no reason to be skeptical. For many, SMS's last two games were so critically acclaimed that they usurped Naughty Dog as PlayStation's premier studio.
Ragnarök shipped 2.5 years ago, so there's around a 50/50 chance SMS reveal their next game this year. However, there's still many PS Studios that must talk first before SMS feels any pressure.
Genre: Action-Adventure
Release Date: November 9, 2022
Days Since Their Last Game: 1665
Metacritic Score: 94