More like God of War: Budget Ascension.
Lead Producer Whitney Wade revealed to German gaming site 20 Minuten that God of War: Ascension had a "a mid double-digit million amount".
In other words, somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million.
The bane of development costs has always been visual presentation, and the God of War series has never shied away from a monumental display of graphics. As each successive title has been released, the grandeur of destroying enemies as Kratos has evolved substantially.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said about its other elements. God of War: Ascension's gameplay felt almost identical to previous installments. There was a series-first multiplayer component introduced to distract players for a few hours, but many felt it took time away from the polish of the game's core experience: its story mode.
Its sales so far have barely broken 1 million, which is a number that would be good for the average game. The problem is God of War: Ascension isn't the average game. It had a budget around $50 million and its predecessor has sold more than 4.5 million copies to-date. SCE Santa Monica Studio is going to have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what it can do to push the series to the next level, because at this point gamers aren't lining up to buy new installments like they once were.
