They should ditch Kratos, but keep the franchise alive. His story is done.

That would be like keeping Dark Samus alive after the MPT. Makes no sense.

I dont think Sony is putting any pressure on Santa monica to release a new GoW, its the studio that wants to make another one. Actualy Santa Monicas status is kinda wierd, its been ages since theyre last game but Sony doesnt seen to put much pressure whatsoever on them cause they work with so many smaler studios bringing tons of indies to PS3 and Ps4, it seens like Sony is pleased with them working in this capacity and dont bother much if they take forever and a half to release a new game.

For the first part, the OP complained explicitly about "endless prequels and remasters," which is what Ascension and Ghost of Sparta fall under. For the second, that's why I added in the "so far" part: things may change someday, but in five years and five prequels/remasters it has so far not opted to do so.

They have written themselves into a wall pure and simple. They need to leave Kratos and Greek mythology alone. Keep the combat and epic scale. Change the protagonist and setting.

More like leave Kratos alone and reboot the series with a different mythology. It would be a good thing for the GoW IP imo since it expands it.

I'm pretty sure Santa Monica tried to develop a new IP, but it sucked so bad that Sony cancelled it, fired half of the studio and rehired Cory Balrog (Director of GoW2) to develop a new God of War game.

Plus, it's a pretty awesome franchise. Aside from Ascension, which is "only" good, all God of War games are Master Pieces.

Ascencion is great! But it lacks the epicness of the rest.

But my question was explicitly about the next God of War "Who has said the next God of War needs to have Kratos as the main character?"

I also think they need to stop prequelling the fuck outta GoW, but I honestly think they are done with GoW prequels.

You're going to be hard to please if you buy a PS4 based on whats not coming out rather than what is. Good luck.

They do need to move on from Kratos. But there's no reason they can't retain the God of War name.