Stig Asmussen, the ex-Sony Santa Monica Studio veteran who directed God of War 3 — and went on to direct Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor at Respawn Entertainment — has just established his own studio. Named Giant Skull, the developer's first project is a "AAA single-player focused action adventure". Sounds like Stig!
The title will be built using Unreal Engine 5, and it's probably years away. It's likely that we'll hear more about Giant Skull and its structure over the coming weeks and months — and we wouldn't be at all surprised if other high profile names are added to its ranks.
Does all of this sound promising to you? Remember just how good God of War 3 is in the comments section below.
[source giantskull.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 47
Can't say I remember GoW3 very well (it's been years) but I loved all games in the series and I do remember both of the excellent Jedi games, so I'm definitely interested.
Safe to assume the game isn't coming out until a few good years from now though.
God of War 3, pinnacle of whole series. 1 and 2 were great, but 3 was outstanding. ...and then GoW went down the hill...
This is exciting. Those games are all great and hopefully this one is too. Also cool logo, drop the text though.
Will be playing it on PS6 then
Some say that he's opened his own AAA studio despite all the recent closures and that he has a giant skull - all we know is, he's called The Stig!
Disappointed, was hoping he returned to Santa Monica to work on the next mainline gow.
@Voltan probably won't come out until next decade tbh.
Also they should have called it broken skull, sounds much cooler.
Some positive gaming industry news for once 🍾
God of War 2 is still the peak of the series for me but 3 was good too. I thoroughly enjoyed his two Star Wars games though and am a little sad to hear he isn't going to be involved with the 3rd one. Still, I wish his new studio success.
GoW 3 was great, but the new ones are 1000x better as far as I'm cornered. Currently playing Ragnarok. Finished the interaction with the black girl. It was so heartwarming and fun!
I wish Stig all the luck, but, considering how long it takes to make a game, we'll probably forget all about it by the time it comes out.
Can anyone provide an example of a successful creative who left a major studio to go independent and continued to make spiritual successors that were as good or better than their previous games?
Keiji Inafune: Mega Man > Mighty No. 9
Koji Igarashi: Castlevania: SOTN > Bloodstained: ROTN
Alex Ward: Burnout > Dangerous Driving
Glen Schofield: Dead Space > The Callisto Protocol
None of the above lived up to their legacies.
I’ll play anything this dude attaches his name to. His work on God of War and his two Jedi games were fantastic.
Hoping this doesn’t go the way of Deviation.
Love both Jedi games, so I'm pretty interested to see what he cooks up next. Hopefully, not more Star Wars, though.
Had my attention at single player action game.
I wish him and his studio the best.
@naruball I felt that there were some serious pacing issues with ragnarok. Kinda felt like more cinematics than necessary, and you were always having control taken away from you as it was ramping up. Spent half the game just wanting to get to the end of it really, but did enjoy the valhalla dlc, precisely because it cut away all the fat.
@djlard
For You
I still remember the opening cinematic for GoW3, and how much it impressed me. Haven't seen it since though, so it's been a while.
@Voltan
Forgotten GoW3?
The scene with the fingernail is etched in my memory, I wish I could forget it.
@J2theEzzo I haven't come across any so far (at least there weren't as far as I'm concerned), but out of curiosity, what did you think of Atreus' whole interaction with the girl? (won't mention anything else about it to avoid spoiling to anyone who hasn't played it yet).
@truerbluer The Bloodstained series is good specially the 2 16 bit games that came out of it.
no need to be overly ambitious from the start. just get a game released. really does not need to be AAA as we know how difficult that is going to be to get off the ground, let alone be successful.
Love the company logo.
@djlard went downhill? You kidding me? 🙄
@naruball The black girl...😂😂😂
I’ve liked all Stigs games. He seems to understand the balance of bombastic spectacle and a good story tied to good gameplay. Hopefully he can hire well (there are plenty of available devs) and continue that streak. Wishing them all the best.
@naruball Fine, I suppose? To be honest, I just didn't like the whole direction it was going in, building up to a "Kratos' Happy Family" scenario. I get that they're clearly trying to make Atreus a more viable protagonist, moving ahead, and I enjoyed some parts with him, but the whole story feels like everyone is pushing against the inevitable. When the exact thing that everyone says "no" to, ends up being the thing that happens, (rather predictably), it all just fell flat for me, and seemed like a lot of senseless padding that could have been done away with.
@naruball For comparisons' sake, GOW 3 probably is my favourite in the series, and I don't think anything will top the sheer joy I got from the opening fight, where you click the sticks in and Kratos pushes his thumbs into Neptune's eyes, in synch. So, yeah. Wholesome family vibes isn't really my thing, haha. I like Kratos best when he's ripping people in half, and bisecting suckers with his axe, without remorse.
Can't wait to see what he and his team come up with God Of War III is peak Stig is a legend ^__^
@Rafie I don't remember her name and didn't want to give away anything about her in case someone hasn't played it. I found her acting the most convincing in the game. Actually in any game I've played so far.
@J2theEzzo yeah, I totally get that. I love it, too, when I played it. It was extremely satisfying.
@naruball I was just teasing. Yes she's a good actress. She's currently co starring on the American TV show called "The Equalizer" alongside Queen Latifah.
I'm up for a new action game been buying a bunch of old ones I got Conan PS3 and Rise of the Argonauts besides earlier then that Brutal Legend and Dante's Inferno. God of War hasn't been going a direction I care for after buying up the series. I beat 4/2018's story I have no interest in it or Ragnarok I didn't get gameplay I cared for with it. The Jedi games were ok not that appealing to me. Fair design. World and story were ok. Puzzles were fun enough. Cosmetics are not exciting for back tracking, combat wasn't for me. The download nonsense. The platforming confused me in Survivor so many times as someone used to platforming I got confused what was a climbable or slideable surface.
So it depends. I'm still on Valkyrie Elysium happily alongside the old gen games I bought. Hi Fi isn't physical so not playing that but No Straight Roads was good and finished it.
I'm ready. Forspoken was fair but didn't get it's appeal. I thought the magic and world was fair, I didn't care about the character or anything about that I was too gameplay focused to care what everyone else said. I get it's issues but eh flop or not I bought Balan and Aveum or their gameplay too. Well Aveum for its themes also as don't care about military immersion Indies or AAA at all. Bright Memory Infinite not played but want to.
I'm ready for a new action game. Even Bayonetta Origins even if very Tale of Two Brothers stick to move both characters but singleplayer and fair differences then the main series has been more fun then Bayonetta 3 was due to its fixes and besides it's differences and prequel aspects. I enjoy more different or enjoy kids games as much as mature ones.
I can wait for a new action game but I hope it's good. If it's very cinematic and particular I'm not interested if it's got compelling gameplay, is fine being mature or fictionally appealing of a world, or more balanced (more teen) I don't mind either way.
God of War 3 was a surprise to me. Granted seen a similar hitting someone in the face move in a game I forget that wanted to be God of War 3 but I'm fine with some interesting details of a more balanced world and gameplay or more mature. Either is fine with me.
I bought the Darksiders series up, 3 sucked, Genesis put me up a bit more I don't like isometric RPGs but it was still Darksiders and a fair prequel. 1&2 are excellent.
Biomutant had me disappointed becythe animals are boring and a class system or traits idea would make it better. Otherwise it's passable just going from Platformers or even Splatoon moveset you do go oh this is pretty generic and beiyan animal skin wise doesn't change much or animations.
Gas immunity was cool at least like No Man's Sky but different.
@truerbluer You got a point but I'm hoping Judas will be the exception.
@truerbluer honestly for a first game effort i liked calisto , i feel like if they made a 2nd game they could improve on what they already have imo.
@Americansamurai1 not sure if a gaming company wants to be associated with the word "broken" these days..
@gpimlott that's true
With all the layoffs, he has plenty of potential staff out there looking for work.
That's exciting.
@MikeOrator just wondering who were those 13 people who liked that comment 🙄
@djlard it didn't go downhill at all. And II was the best among the first trilogy
@2here2there II could be best if there is no "defend casket" final fight. The most annoying finish I remember in my huge gaming history.
@2here2there
Its up to 18 now...lol...and I can only assume it's people that agree with me.
Rather then doing a AAA game, make something smaller thrn there isn't that high of a risk.
Something along the lines of Abzu, Journey or even a Fury Unleashed type game
@truerbluer Bloodstained is a fantastic game though.
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