God of War Laufey is at the centre of a row. We recently told you about the interviews our colleagues at Edge conducted with a number of figures from the games industry to get their take on the state of things right now. Among them was Bruce Straley, known to all for his work at Naughty Dog — he directed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, The Last of Us and its Left Behind expansion, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
During his interview with the British magazine, Bruce Straley suggested that one of the reasons behind the difficulties the games industry is currently facing is the lack of excitement, and the boredom, that AAA productions can inspire. To illustrate his point, he used God of War Laufey as an example.
Graphics aren't everything
"When I look at God of War Laufey, every pixel is mind-blowing," he said. "The amount of work and the level of craft in every single frame… I've made that kind of game, and I'm still blown away. But when I look at what you can actually do in the game, I'm not all that excited. I've got nothing against God of War Laufey. It's just that, generally speaking, with AAA games, I get the feeling there's no room left for fresh ideas."
Reasonable as Bruce Straley's position may be, naming Santa Monica Studio's game specifically rubbed a few people up the wrong way. Which is why the man himself was keen to clarify his thinking in a post on X.
"I want to apologise to the team behind God of War Laufey for dragging them into this pointless controversy. I was simply trying to illustrate one of my concerns about the industry, and I made the mistake of naming your game. My words were taken out of context for clickbait. You don't need that. I'm sorry.
A journalist asked for my view on the state of our industry. I mentioned a few problems, such as the lack of innovation and risk-taking in AAA productions. That's not the team's fault! My worry is that players will end up growing tired of playing the same games they've been playing for 20 years."
Games that all look alike
Bruce Straley goes on: "Our medium is unique because players take part. Physiologically, that's different from an audience watching a film. It demands that we, as creators, come up with new experiences, otherwise we risk dialling down the dopamine for players.
Half-Life 2 came out in 2004, Gears of War in 2006, BioShock in 2007, Uncharted 2 in 2009, The Last of Us in 2013. I feel like those games (and plenty of others) defined the modern AAA production. Each of them feels like it's trying to bring something new to the table. But to me, that's only one of the problems facing the sector."
A lack of vision
He adds: "Unfortunately, the platforms that ought to be providing stability have undermined the ability to innovate. The race to make live-service games, the drive to create the next Overwatch, the next Fortnite or the next Roblox — it isn't a viable strategy. Above all it shows that these industry 'leaders' don't know their own brand.
There's a clear lack of leadership, vision and conviction from the people in charge of the money side. Money brings stability. I think that if they believed in their brand, they could have more honest and more inspiring conversations with creators so that our medium becomes innovative again.
I have thoughts about what's going wrong, about what's hurting our industry, and about how we might fix those problems. I tried to have a thoughtful conversation, but I tripped over my own feet by mentioning God of War Laufey. That was a mistake."
A glance at the reactions to this clarification shows that most people aren't holding it against Bruce Straley. Quite the opposite: plenty are saying he's only stating the obvious, even if they reckon coming up with a new concept every single time is a tall order.
As a reminder, God of War Laufey is due on 16 February 2027 for PS5. As for Bruce Straley, he founded his own studio in March 2021. Named Wildflower Interactive, it had around a dozen developers as of 2025. It operates entirely remotely and is currently at work on its first game, Coven of the Chicken Foot.
