Cory Barlog

Cory Barlog is an American video-game director and writer best known for his work on Sony Santa Monica’s God of War series. He joined Sony Computer Entertainment Santa Monica in 2003 and served as lead animator on the original God of War, released in 2005. His animation credits on that game included cinematic sequences, helping establish the violent, mythological world of Spartan warrior Kratos.

Barlog became game director for God of War II, the 2007 PlayStation 2 sequel. The game begins with Kratos as the new God of War after killing Ares; Zeus subsequently betrays him and strips him of his powers. Kratos survives with help from the Titan Gaia and pursues the Sisters of Fate in an attempt to change his destiny. God of War II was celebrated for expanding the first game’s combat and scale, and it ended with Kratos leading the Titans toward Mount Olympus.

He later worked at Avalanche Studios before returning to Santa Monica Studio in 2013. On the 2018 God of War, Barlog was creative director and directed the game. This installment moved the series from Greek mythology to a Norse setting and recast Kratos as an older father raising his son, Atreus. After the death of Kratos’s wife Faye, the pair travel to scatter her ashes from the highest peak in the nine realms. Their route brings them into conflict with Baldur, a son of Odin whose inability to feel pain is central to the story.

Barlog’s team used an over-the-shoulder camera and presented the main adventure as an apparent uninterrupted shot, without traditional cinematic cuts. The game also replaced Kratos’s signature chained Blades of Chaos at the outset with the Leviathan Axe, although the blades return later in the campaign. Bear McCreary composed its score. God of War won Game of the Year at The Game Awards in 2018, where Barlog delivered an emotional acceptance speech.

Barlog remained a key figure at Santa Monica Studio for God of War Ragnarök, released in 2022. He was credited as a producer on the sequel, while Eric Williams directed it. Ragnarök continues Kratos and Atreus’s Norse story as the threat of Ragnarök approaches and expands their encounters with Odin, Thor, Freya, and other figures from Norse myth. Across these projects, Barlog helped steer Kratos from an Olympian revenge saga into a father-son narrative set amid the Norse realms, a shift central to the franchise’s identity.