God of War is a phenomenal game, one that has loads of secrets and content to explore even after the credits roll. That said, many have been wondering why the Santa Monica Studios title doesn’t have a New Game Plus feature. It would undoubtedly work well, given the kind of game God of War is; players select New Game Plus and all of a sudden we’re back to the start of the game, this time with tougher, smarter opponents and perhaps with different enemy placement, not unlike what the Dark Souls series has done in the past. Thankfully, God of War director Cory Barlog was able to shed some light on why the feature is absent, and the possibility of adding it in later.

In a recent interview with GamingBolt, the director revealed that the dev team had every intention of putting a New Game Plus feature in the game, they simply ran out of time. ‘New Game Plus is something I wanted so badly, right? And it is this Sophie’s choice you have to consciously make as you enter the last eight months of working on a game,” Barlog said. “You have a huge list of features, and so many of these things kind of get pushed down the list. And, the impact, the involvement of New Game Plus, kept pushing it further down the list, because keeping it would cause a lot of other stuff, and a lot of other stuff meant stability, and polish, would be delayed.”

Barlog goes on to say that even though the team had five years, they were working down to the last second on refining and polishing, which is why the game’s Photo Mode didn’t make it in until after they went Gold. While it is unfortunate that the team was too busy to implement New Game Plus before the game’s release, there is still hope that it will be added in later, especially given the massively positive reception God of War has enjoyed since release. “New Game Plus is definitely the same in that we all love that kind of concept, it’s just, we haven’t had the time to get started on any of that stuff,” Barlog said. “So it is definitely something that I am still trying to convince people of, but we’ll have to see where it shakes out.”

God of War is now available exclusively for the PlayStation 4.

So, thoughts on the possibility of New Game Plus coming to God of War? How would you like to see subsequent playthroughs be treated? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news! Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!