His name could have been Stig.
"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 highbrow, 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.
Filed under: God of War PlayStation 4
