Firstly, I'd like to say that this isn't about God of War III, so no, it doesn't belong in the Official Thread.

Anyway, you've probably heard the official statement from Sony:

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=6636

God of War III is the last game in the God of War trilogy (shocker, that), but not by a long way the last game in the franchise. Now, this could mean a number of things:

1) God of War IV. On PS3

Basically, a jump similar to GoW2-3. Keep the basic gameplay intact, and have the game take place immediately afterwards. Now, this would be cheating a little. You don't end a trilogy, just to have another entry continue the story arc (unless you're Douglas Adams). So, that's unlikely. This would also mean that GoW3 doesn't wrap things up. Which would be somewhat irritating.

2) A prequel, taking place before God of War. Perhaps even before Chains of Olympus, when he swept through the Persian army with the power of Ares. Naturally, this would be quite short. Maybe a PSN game. Same basic formula, but only Ares powers

3) A spin-off that remains somewhat faithful. Like a God of War RPG- the same game with RPG elements? I don't know. It doesn't even have to stay with Kratos, really. It could be after the probable Re-Creation at the end of God of War III. New character, still a hack and slash? Different genre, maybe? If this happens, I would put my money on an action-adventure with more emphasis on the adventure and less on the combat, featuring a new Greek hero, very different from Kratos.

4) (For the lulz): Tennis of War, God of Party, Kratos Kart, God of War vs. Capcom... that last one sounds quite good, actually

Which do you think is most likely? I'd go with number 2 as a downloadable PS3 game, then maybe something else for Santa Monica, then number 3 as a PS4 launch or first year title.

Well, that's what I'd want, anyway.

Thoughts?

Well I am certain there will be no God of War IV. Jaffe said it will explain why there are no more Greek myths, and they have said it is the end of the trilogy.

The problem with a spin-off is that Kratos is so so so central to the game, there aren't any other strong characters that you could have a spin-off with

I think another prequel is the best bet

I think it will be about kratos's younger brother that was shown in a concept's video in GOW 1

BOO!!

KRATOS should go & take down the EGYPTIAN Gods next!!

I think Kratos should go out on top like John Elway.

The J-Man's post reminded me of this, another concept video from God of War:

EDIT: If the embed isn't working, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WSC6n4TkBs

What do people think of this?

I personally think it would be interesting...in a bad way.

Maybe the next game in the franchise will be centered around Kratos lost son or something like that who grows up to be a hero or something.

And kills kratos.....

exactly, or maybe face the chinese army or something like that, or even the persian army lol

Well there's the Norse and Egyptian polytheistic mythologies they could do, but closer to home, and fairly closely related is Roman polytheistic mythology. Now that Kratos has taken down the greek pantheon the Roman Pantheon decides they can muscle in on a metaphysical power vacuum so Kratos has to fix what he's broken or see the Greek people come under the yoke of Roman tyranny.

Or Krato's son (daughter?) can step in and fix it. If it's a female relation to Kratos then we can have ultimate Bayonetta vs daughter of Kratos threads.