Looking back at his time with Santa Monica, Asmussen revealed in an interview with Game Informer that among the many names submitted for consideration, his first name was accidentally shortlisted and Kratos was almost called Stig. Asmussen clarified that he did not actually submit his own name, but the marketing team thought that “Stig” was one of his suggestions because when he turned in his list, he wrote down his name so that people would know it came from him.
Although the studio eventually settled with Kratos, Asmussen said that marketing really liked the sound of Stig, and he would have been cool with it had they decided to go in that direction. Apart from the name of the game’s protagonist, Asmussen also shared that God of War wasn’t always called God of War. For the longest time during the game’s development, its working title was called Dark Odyssey, but marketing thought that people might not get what the game is about and the team eventually settled for God of War.
Asmussen has worked with every single God of War game except the 2018 title. When asked what he thought of the latest entry, he revealed that he wasn’t convinced with the direction at first, but was happy with how the game turned out in the end. After his long stint in Santa Monica Studios, Asmussen joined EA and is now working on the upcoming game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
God of War is available now exclusively on the PlayStation 4.
Source: Game Informer
