God of War Ragnarok’s marketing confirms Kratos has friends

By Lee Brady,

God of War Ragnarok's PS5 and PS4 marketing push from Sony and Santa Monica includes a 'family portraits' series of artwork from well-known artists, the latest of which confirms suspicions that Kratos has friends.

Update: God of War Ragnarok's 'family portraits' marketing campaign has produced three Sony and Santa Monica-approved works of art that tastefully depict God of War's characters and lore. However, the latest family portrait shakes things up by teasing that God of War Ragnarok's story sees Kratos and Týr become close friends.

god of warGod of War Ragnarok portraits, in order of release (left-to-right).

The latest God of War Ragnarok 'family portrait', created by artist Romina Tempest and drawing upon a 'found family' theme, showcases Kratos and Atreus sharing a table with the dwarven brothers Brok and Sindri, wolves Skoll and Hati, and the Norse god of war Týr. Fans had suspected Kratos and Týr would team up in their battle to fight Odin, given much of the lore in the 2018 God of war suggests they share that same mission. The new God of War Ragnarok trailer shows Kratos and Týr clasping hands in what appears, at the very least, to be some kind of respect for one another seemed like confirmation of this.

Now we have a pretty good idea that the Greek God of War and the Norse God of War are going to be pretty chummy, despite Kratos' usual dour demeanour. We're pretty excited to dive into this one when its release date finally arrives — until then, make sure you pre-load Ragnarok ahead of time and let us know in the comments what your thoughts are on this latest addition to the God of War marketing push.

gowKratos, repping the brand.

Original Story: God of War Ragnarok's latest marketing promotion from Sony will reveal a new 'family portrait' each week, starting from 13th September, 2022. Big names like Before Watchmen artist Jae Lee and Tokyo Ghoul Sui Ishida are set to make God of War Ragnarok art in a marketing push that, while cool, marks yet another strange promotional choice for the PS5 and PS4 game from Sony.

Sony's odd God of War Ragnarok marketing strategy

Announced via the PlayStation Blog, the God of War Ragnarok family portraits will also feature the works on contemporary artist Drew Merritt, Pretty Deadly artist Emma Ríos, and Romina Tempest, the artist behind the hilarious God of War's ABC storybook adaptation.

While this promotion is certainly good news for those who wanted some cool God of War artwork but weren't interested in splurging on the God of War Ragnarok art book, it does also have us reflecting on how strange Sony's marketing campaign for PlayStation Studios title has been thus far. While we are finally seeing some gameplay trailers trickle in, showing off Ragnarok's weapon signature moves and its fully-explorable nine realms, these moments have been slightly outnumbered by the amount of weird other stuff Sony has been doing.

gowWe haven't even seen God of War Ragnarok third-party product integration yet.

First, there was the free PS4 God of War sequel-hinting theme, which kicked off title speculation for Santa Monica's God of War follow-up via the all-powerful medium of optional PS4 themes. Then we had the God of War Ragnarok sculpture, which confirmed the game's release date by way of a sand castle. Then, most recently, we saw a crossover between God of War Ragnarok and Rick and Morty, something that felt very natural and not at all bafflingly forced.

This isn't to say Sony shouldn't be putting resources into all these strange marketing choices — frankly, the fact that we're getting more than just gameplay trailers and cinematic TV spots makes for more interesting conversation than most marketing campaigns. Yet, we can't help but marvel over the sheer number of scatterbrained God of War Ragnarok promotions that have come seen so far, and wondering how many might still be on the way. We didn't even cover the Myths of Midgard video summary of the first game starring actress Felicia Day, who to our knowledge is far more associated with Dragon Age than God of War.
What do you make of Sony's marketing strategy for God of War Ragnarok? Perhaps the God of War Ragnarok leak has had you keeping your head down for fear of spoilers, in which case, you may continue to trawl through all the scalped God of War Ragnarok preorders out there in hopes for a decently priced one. Let us know your thoughts on Sony's marketing in the comments below.
Lee Brady
Written by Lee Brady
News Editor Lee covers the latest upcoming PS5 games like Ghost of Yotei while making sure PlayStation Plus’ classic PS1 and PS2 games are given enough respect. Lee leads the charge on our original data analysis courtesy of Game Lens. His 25 years of PlayStation experience compliments his love of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
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