http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178157

One week from today, we'll have a God of War 3 review on 1UP, marking the third Sony Santa Monica-developed God of War in five years, and the end of the "original God of War trilogy," as Sony likes to call it. That quote, of course, leaves some wiggle room should they want to continue Kratos' adventures with a side story, introduce a new playable character, or find some other loophole to keep the series going.

But from the sound of it, current director Stig Asmussen is ready to move on to something different. In a recent interview with 1UP -- which you'll be able to see more of in the next episode of Backstage -- he clarified that he thinks a break would be good for the franchise.

"I think there comes a time when to maintain a high level of quality... the bottom line is you can't get burned out, and the source material can't always be the same," said Asmussen. "I want God of War to be one of those games where if there are more God of Wars, we're seeing them spread out over time -- it's not like our studio's making a new God of War every two or three years or something like that, and then the series becomes irrelevant. I like the approach of, 'We just won't make Metroid for 10 years. Why do we have to keep making Metroid?' And then when it comes back, it's fresh and you remember why you loved that game so much. I think it would be good at this point to take that approach with God of War... For a trilogy, it's great. Let's put it to bed for awhile though."

When asked if he felt the same way about portable entries or other forms the series could take beyond PlayStation home console releases, he said, "I wouldn't rule anything out at this point; this is just kind of how I feel about it."

During the same interview, Asmussen also squashed rumors that God of War 3 had a $100 million budget, saying the number was nowhere near that, and revealed that the March 2010 release date has been planned since the game began development, with no delays along the way.

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I agree, it would be nice to let the franchise get a good break, and then perhaps do a reboot somewhere down the line, and then let Santa Monica get their hands on a new IP.

I don't know whether it should be "Metroid-Sized", but they could use a couple years off/a new IP to chew upon.

Baddabing, badda bump

I'm still not getting what metroid has to do with this.

Metroid had a long break from its initial games until a reboot was made for the GameCube. He is just using it as an example of a beloved franchise that took a long break in between development of its main iterations.

Metroid had a nice break after Super Metroid. Metroid Prime was the first after it on a Nintendo home console, and it was amazing....

I agree with him. let the franchise rest for a while, keep the IP going with smaller releases ( like CoO) and in lets say 5 or 6 years, when the PS4 matures, release a new game

Super Metroid - 94

Metroid Prime - 02

Obviously it was a "big" break, and he must be a fan of the series.

I don't think the developers of God of War can be comparing anything to Metroid. Development time or their hope for 'maintaining the quality'. Yes, this is my very bias opinion, but God of War games are very repetitive and lacking in originality (in my opinion). And the fact that there's been 3 of them in the last 5 years probably has something to do with that. You can't really turn around and say the quality will go up if you just 'stop making them for a long time like Metroid'. They need to spend MORE time working on a sequel and trying to change the games formula.

Metroid games don't just take a 5 year break, then suddenly come back all 'fresh and new' with the same old ideas. They spend a lot of that time developing new gameplay and design ideas. I mean, look at Metroid: Other M. I have a feeling these developers would do the opposite, given their track record with God of War. Even after a '10 year hiatus', the game would still be about mashing buttons and dodging pre-programmed 'cinematic' attacks.  Because that's what the series has gotten popular for and to change it now would make fans angry (and therefore sales go down).

I'd just like to point out here that Metroid Prime was developed by a different group than Super Metroid (Retro Studios).  While Metroid Prime was being in development, the original developers of Super Metroid and the original Metroid games (R&D1 and Intelligent Systems directed by Yoshio Sakamoto) were developing Metroid Fusion.  Which released on GBA at the same time as Metroid Prime.  So not only did we get 2 Metroid games at the same time as each other, but from two different development groups.

Then, to top it off, two years later, we got Metroid: Zero Mission, once again developed by R&D1/Intelligent Systems and directed by series creator Yoshio Sakamoto.  While at the same time, Metroid Prime 2 came out 8 months later.

So its not like we've had a lack of Metroid in the recent years.

They should just do the "new coke" approach. Make a really shit god of war, and then shut down the dev department...then spark it back to life in 6 years on the new system which they have been secretly working on with, like, a 3 man team for 5 years.

exactly, the break doesn't make the game great, the gameplay does. Nintendo's philosophy is why make a sequel if we can't do something new. There didn't need to be that 8 year break in the series as they could have made another 2D metroid. The real reason for the break in the series was because Nintendo felt they did everything they could with the hardware without wearing the series out. They held off until a 3D metroid was possible, and look what we got.

anyways, I'm not a huge fan of GoW, but it doesn't sound to me like he wants to reboot the series, instead just bring it back and it will be "all fresh".

EDIT: obviously I'm aware of all the other games, just stating that is why I think he stated it needed a break like metroid.