God of War’s Kratos almost had a different name, but the developers at Santa Monica studio made too many jokes about Domino’s pizza. David Jaffe, the director of the original God of War trilogy, recently released a video explaining the deep dish problem.
Kratos was originally named “Dominus”, which Jaffe liked because it made him sound dominant and strong. Unfortunately, this also made it look like a pizza chain.
“The team members started making jokes about Domino’s Pizza” Jaffe said. “Every time someone said Dominus, someone inevitably shouted, ’30 minutes or free’ or ‘Open the door, it’s Dominus.’
“After about the fiftieth time, the writing was on the wall. Dominus was dead and we needed a new name for our hero.”
Someone at the studio printed out a long list of ancient Greek baby names, and Jaffe used a yellow highlighter to mark the best of them. “The names I highlighted weren’t great,” he said, citing Julius, Parthenius and Maksym as examples.
“Nothing seemed perfect. Ultimately, it was our marketing manager, Susan Panico, who came up with the name Kratos. She came up with it and we loved it, and it stuck.”
Jaffe found the list of highlighted baby names among his old design documents last year. On the sheet, hidden among the names, not highlighted, it was there: Kratos.
“We had the biggest hero of the Sony franchise on our hands the whole time and we didn’t even know it,” he said. “Which I guess shows you how much success in gaming is just luck, timing, and in this case, marketing.”
Jaffe has already spoken about Dominus and the creation of Kratos, but he never went into that much detail about the process. He just said previously that marketing didn’t like Dominus, but the pizza business is certainly a new development.
The first release of God of War was the 2005 PS2 game of the same name. It was a great success, spawning a franchise that has enjoyed considerable success over the past 20 years. The next game in the series, God of War: Laufey, is set to release on PS5 in February 2027. Santa Monica Studio creative director Cory Barlog has confirmed that a new untitled God of War game with Kratos returning as the protagonist is also in development.
Kirk McKeand is a contributor on IGN News. Find him on Twitter @MckKirk
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