One of PlayStation’s costliest missteps was handing 25 million dollars to the God of War creators to build a brand-new franchise. Although bigger failures have surfaced in recent years, at the time it ranked among Sony’s most expensive cancellations ever.

Being known as “the creator of God of War” carries serious weight, yet it now turns out Sony Santa Monica could have been much more. The studio behind Kratos spent years working on a completely new IP that ultimately never saw the light of day despite more than 25 million dollars poured into its development. Shuhei Yoshida, who led Sony’s global studio division for over a decade, confirmed the story in an interview, explaining that he was the one who made the final call.

The Cancelled Game That Burned Through 25 Million

The revelation came during an interview on My Perfect Console. Yoshida had previously mentioned two major projects that were cancelled despite significant investment, prompting the hosts to dig deeper. The former executive then revealed that the mystery title came from Santa Monica Studio. According to him, “it wasn’t a God of War, it was a completely new IP. It had a brilliant concept and interesting gameplay ideas. And of course, the studio is more than capable of producing top-tier art.”

Despite the promise, the vision never quite solidified. As Yoshida explains, it was ultimately the studio itself that requested the project be shut down: “We supported them for many years, but after spending 25 million, they came to me and said we had to stop. I don’t remember the exact reason. I think the team just couldn’t find ‘the game.’ The idea was great, but it never crystallized into playable form.”

He also noted that “I’ve cancelled a lot of games”, adding that most are scrapped early before development becomes expensive. “But when a project is moving forward and still looks promising, canceling it after 25 million dollars is extremely hard. Even so, I believe Santa Monica itself was already thinking it might be time to walk away.”

The story dates back several years, though Yoshida didn’t specify when. He believes that canceling a game after investing more than 25 million dollars “is nothing unusual anymore,” especially in light of recent, high-profile cancellations such as Perfect Dark or The Last of Us Online. As for the second cancelled title, he offered no details other than that it was being developed by a European studio.

Source: 3djuegos