God Of War's Kratos Almost Had A Different Name

The main character of the God of War series is Kratos, but Sony almost went with a different name--one that was very close to developer Stig Asmussen. He recalled in an interview with Game Informer that the marketing team didn't like the name Dominus, which is what the developers used as a working name throughout development.

"Marketing didn't like that," Asmussen said.

To get a bigger pool of potential names, game director David Jaffe enlisted his team to submit their own names for consideration. Asmussen himself submitted four or five names (which he didn't share), but he was surprised when his own name, Stig, came back as a frontrunner.

Asmussen clarified that he didn't add his own name, but the confusion was that he wrote his name on the document with his suggestions so people knew it was his list. The marketing team apparently thought Stig was in fact one of his name submissions.

"I totally would have been cool with it," Asmussen said with a laugh.

It was ultimately decided that Kratos would be his name. It's not clear what other names besides Dominus and Stig were considered.

Another part of the game that was up for debate was the title of it. In development, the team was making the game with the working title "Dark Odyssey," which Asmussen recalled that the team "really liked." However, the marketing department said it "might be too high-brow, and people might not get it," Asmussen said.

They eventually landed on God of War, and that seemed to work out. God of War as a franchise and Kratos as the main character have gone on to become massive in stature in gaming. As Game Informer reminds us, the name "God of War" is sort of a spoiler, but then again, so was "Return of the King."

Asmussen had a hang in developing every God of War game except the 2018 game. Asmussen is now working at Respawn, where he's heading up development on the new Star Wars game Jedi Fallen Order.