Valkyrie Entertainment, which previously supported Sony’s Santa Monica Studios in the development of God of War Ragnarok, hinted by way of a new job listing that it is developing an all-new strategy game. This isn’t out of the ordinary for Valkyrie Entertainment; the God of War Ragnarok developer has previously launched Guns Up! Mobile, a mobile-only title that bore clear influence from the beloved Advance Wars franchise.
God of War Ragnarok’s primary developer Santa Monica Studios is said to have multiple projects in the works, all of which are likely to serve as heavy hitters for Sony’s PlayStation brand in the future. However, it’s difficult to discern the direction in which Valkyrie Entertainment may be heading. While the genre has been announced, there’s no way to determine the shape this new project could take. There’s certainly a niche for free-to-play strategy titles of the sort with which Valkyrie Entertainment is experienced, though it’s mostly sequestered to the mobile market. That said, it’s worth noting that Guns Up! Mobile actually debuted as a console exclusive on the PlayStation 4.
In its recently-posted Backend Engineer job listing, Valkyrie Entertainment is described as a Seattle-based provider of “content and co-development for some of the most well-respected developers in the industry.” The listing goes on the mention the work the studio has performed on both God of War Ragnarok and League of Legends. Valkyrie Entertainment was acquired by Sony in late 2021, indicating that its next project could be much larger in scale than something like Guns Up! Mobile.
Sony seems to have at least some interest in the free-to-play space. Early last year, Sony acquired ex-Halo development studio Bungie, the team behind the ultra-popular free-to-play looter shooter title Destiny. Additionally, rumors circulated in 2022 that Sony would experiment with running ads in free-to-play titles. While nothing is confirmed, this new Valkyrie Entertainment project could perhaps play into that plan.
Furthermore, in 2021, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida announced that the publisher would begin a mobile gaming initiative, though very little has come of that in the eighteen months since. Still, Valkyrie Games’ familiarity with mobile gaming and close ties to Sony suggests that the studio may actually be developing a mobile title for the publisher. It would come as a shock to many Sony fans, but, given how incredibly lucrative mobile gaming continues to be, it’s certainly not unthinkable.