title: Chris Brown

text: Throughout 2016 and 2017 he kept on sharing several snippets from songs that he was working for the album and features. He worked on the album heavily during 2016 and 2017, during two tours as well, the European leg of the One Hell of a Nite Tour and The Party Tour, also building a recording studio inside of his home to record songs for the album. On December 16, 2016, he released the second official single from the album, "Party", that features guest vocals from American R&B singer Usher and rapper Gucci Mane, getting a good commercial success. The singer, while working on the album, realized that he had done too many songs that he thought were quality records that followed perfectly the narrative of the album to make a 15/20 track album, so he decided that he wanted to take it to the next level by working on it as a 40-track album. RCA Records, the record label of the singer, initially wasn't agreeable of satisfying Brown's intentions to make a 40-track album, thinking that it would've damaged its commercial performance, but the singer ended up convincing them. In February 2017 he announced that his previously teased song "Privacy" would have been released as the next single from "Heartbreak on a Full Moon". The single was released on March 24, 2017, and received an excellent response from his core audience. On June 7 he released "Welcome to My Life", a self-documentary focused on his life and career, directed by Andrew Sandler. Numerous celebrities participated in the movie, making statements and sharing stories about the artist. Among them there are Jennifer Lopez, Mike Tyson, Rita Ora, Usher and Tyga.


title: Chris Brown

text: On August 4, 2017, he released the album's fourth single "Pills & Automobiles", that features guest vocals from American trap artists Yo Gotti, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Kodak Black. Then on August 14, 2017, he announced the release of the fifth official single from the album, "Questions", on August 16, announcing the album release date, saying that it would be released on October 31, 2017. On October 13, 2017, Brown released the promotional single "High End", that features guest vocals from American trap artists Future and Young Thug, announcing the final tracklist of the album. On October 25, 2017, Brown organized with Tidal a free pop-up concert in New York City to perform the singles on the album and promote it for his fans.


title: Chris Brown

text: "Heartbreak on a Full Moon" was eventually released as a double-disc album on October 31, 2017, via digital retailers and onto CD, three days later by RCA Records. The album's sound has been as dark and soulful. The songs on it show every emotional aspect of what's been on the singer's mind after a heavy breakup. Its themes include regret, love transforming into hate, the difficulty in managing emotions, the impossibility of getting over someone, and how a reckless lifestyle can't numb the pain of an heartbreak. Its lyrical content was inspired by Brown's breakup with Karrueche Tran. "Heartbreak on a Full Moon" received widespread acclaim from critics, who celebrated the record's variety, its length, and its introspective lyrical content. Many defined it as the singer's best body of work. Despite being counted for only three days of sales, "Heartbreak on a Full Moon" debuted at number three on the US "Billboard" 200, becoming Brown's ninth consecutive top 10 album on the chart. One week after its release "Heartbreak on a Full Moon" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units in the United States, and Brown became the first R&B male artist that went gold in a week since Usher's "Confessions" in 2004. In 2019 the album has been certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).


title: Chris Brown

text: On December 13, 2017, he released a 12-track surprise deluxe edition of the album called "Cuffing Season – 12 Days of Christmas" as a Christmas present for his fans. The deluxe edition is made off Brown's favorite leftovers of the album and few holiday-themed songs. Brown eventually embarked on his US "Heartbreak on a Full Moon Tour" in June 2018 to further promote the album. The opening acts for the tour were 6lack, H.E.R., Rich the Kid, and Jacquees.


title: Chris Brown

text: Following the overall success of "Heartbreak on a Full Moon", Brown and rapper Joyner Lucas announced a collaboration project, titled "Angels & Demons" on February 25, 2018, with the release of the single "Stranger Things". However the project ended up never being released. On March 15, 2018, Brown was featured in Lil Dicky's smash hit single "Freaky Friday". By April 9, 2018, the video had reached over 100 million views and topped the charts in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.


title: Chris Brown

text: After drafting the concept for his new album, in August 2018, at the end of the "Heartbreak On A Full Moon tour", Brown started the actual processing work of his ninth album, "Indigo". On January 4, 2019, Brown released "Undecided", the first single off it, alongside a video for the song. "Undecided" saw Brown reunite with producer Scott Storch, who previously worked with Brown in 2005 on his breakout hit "Run It!". The single marked Brown's first release after signing an extension and a new license agreement with RCA Records, that gave him the owning of his master recordings, making him one of the youngest artists to do so at the age of 29. On April 11, he released the second single off the album titled "Back to Love", that received positive reviews from music critics who celebrated its lyrical content and its production, but it failed to chart in the US. The third single, "Wobble Up", was released a week later featuring Nicki Minaj and G-Eazy, announcing that the album is expected to be released in June. On April 25, he appeared on a track with Marshmello and Tyga called "Light It Up". In an announcement on May 2, Brown revealed the list of artists he had been working with for his album, Nicki Minaj, Tory Lanez, Tyga, Justin Bieber, Juicy J, Juvenile, H.E.R, Tank, Sage the Gemini, Lil Jon, Lil Wayne, Joyner Lucas, Gunna and Drake were included on the list. Some of these collaborations were surprising to the media, especially Drake, due to their public feud that lasted for several years. He later revealed the artwork of the album and its track list between May and June 2019. On May 31, he appeared on "Easy", a successful single where he duetted with singer DaniLeigh. On June 8, Brown released "No Guidance" featuring Drake as a single. It debuted at number nine on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, making it Brown's 15th top-ten song, and later peaked at number five. The single won Best Collaboration Performance, Best Dance Performance and Song of the Year at the 2019 Soul Train Music Awards and received a nomination for Best R&B Song at the 62nd Grammy Awards.


title: Chris Brown

text: "Indigo" was eventually released on June 28, 2019, as a double album, marking Brown's second album to be released in this style. The disc is an R&B and tropical-pop album, about vibrations, spiritual love and sex, that leaves the introspective, dark and sultry mood of "Heartbreak on a Full Moon", for a way more lighthearted sound and tone. In the United States, "Indigo" debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200 with 108,000 album-equivalent units, which included 28,000 pure album sales in its first week, making it his third number-one album in the country. The album was met with positive reviews from critics. "Indigo" spawned two other singles, "Heat", which topped the "Billboard" Rhythmic Airplay chart, and earned Brown his 13th number one on the chart, and second during 2019, and "Don't Check on Me", that features vocals from Justin Bieber and vocalist Atia "Ink" Boggs. On October 4, 2019, Brown eventually released a deluxe version of "Indigo" entitled "Indigo Extended", which included 10 additional songs, making the extended version a total of 42 songs.


title: Chris Brown

text: On June 10, 2019, Brown announced an official headlining concert tour where he performed the album throughout United States, titled "Indigoat Tour". The tour began on August 20, and ended on October 19. The tour was received with very good responses by journalists, that praised its stage settings, and Brown's dancing abilities. "Indigoat Tour" grossed over $30,100,000 in its 37 shows, selling out most of the venues. Brown was ranked 3rd in the "Billboard" top R&B/Hip-Hop artists of the decade for the 2010s, behind peers Rihanna and Drake in 2nd and 1st, respectively.


title: Chris Brown

text: In December 2019, Brown revealed that he started working on new material for his tenth studio album. Later, on April 29, 2020, Brown announced the release of a collaborative mixtape with Young Thug, "Slime & B". The mixtape was released on May 5, 2020, and features the hit single "Go Crazy", which peaked at number 3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming Brown's first song to spend one full year on the chart. In April 2021, "Go Crazy" broke the record for the longest running No. 1 song on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, a record that was previously held by Brown's 2019 hit single "No Guidance". On May 1, 2020, Brown was featured on Drake's "Dark Lane Demo Tapes" mixtape on the track "Not You Too". The song earned Brown his 100th career entry on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, as it entered and debuted at number 25.


title: Chris Brown

text: On July 9, 2020, Brown announced via Instagram that the title of his tenth album would be "Breezy", a reference to his stage nickname. No release date has been announced yet. Brown said in July 2021, while working on the album, that he wanted to make some "really endearing music" that "talk to women's soul". On August 2, 2021, he announced on his Instagram that his "Breezy" album would be accompanied by a short film of the same name. Later on December 18, 2021, he said that the lead single of "Breezy" would be released during January 2022. On January 14, 2022, he released the single "Iffy", which peaked to #1 of the Rhythmic Radio Chart on April 3, 2022. "Iffy" ended up not being included on the album. On March 15, 2022, Brown shared a snippet of a second single entitled "Warm Embrace" on his Instagram account with the caption "Is this the BREEZY you've been waiting for?". The song has a more traditional R&B sound and is set to be released on April 1. On March 16, 2022, Brown took to his Instagram account to tease a new joint tour for Summer 2022 with a mystery co-headliner, which will coincide the rollout of the album. On April 1, 2022, Brown released the official audio for his second single "WE (Warm Embrace)" on all streaming platforms. The record is produced by Don City and sees Brown go back to his R&B roots, as he samples Guy's '90s hit "Let's Chill". On April 26, 2022, Brown announced that the mystery co-headliner for his summer tour titled One of Them Ones is rapper Lil Baby. The tour will include 27 stops in North American and is set to kick off on July 15. Brown performed at Drai's After Hours Nightclub at The Cromwell Las Vegas Hotel and Casino on June 11, 2022 in Las Vegas marking the launch of his new multi-year residency at the venue.


title: Chris Brown

text: On June 17, 2022, one week ahead of the album release, Brown released the audio for an Afrobeats-infused collaboration with Wizkid titled "Call Me Every Day". The song was co-produced by DJ Tunez, Blaise Beatz and Leon Youngblood. On June 21, 2022, Brown released a music video for the single "WE (Warm Embrace)". The video included a guest appearance and dance sequence with fellow R&B artist Normani and teased a sneak peak of an album track titled "Sleep at Night". On June 24, 2022, Brown released a music vdeo for “C.A.B. (Catch A Body)” featuring rapper Fivio Foreign. The neon-glowing visual finds the two men sipping red cups, driving foreign cars, and enjoying a night out on the town. The video was directed by Damien Sandoval and coincided with the release date of the Breezy album. On August 22, 2022, Brown took to social media to state that there is a strong possibility his North American co-headlined tour with Lil Baby would be expanding to Europe. On August 24, 2022, Brown released a music video his single "Call Me Every Day" featuring Wizkid. The video which was directed by Child finds a woman taking a bath before she starts daydreaming about Brown and Wizkid. She’s then transported to an African village where the Virginia native links up with the Nigerian megastar to celebrate Black beauty. The video also captures interactions with Brown and his backup dancer Taylor Terry, as well as the singer grooving with his longtime backup dancers. At the final stop of Brown's One of Them One's tour in Las Vegas, he renuinted with American Idol winner Jordin Sparks for a nostalgic performance of their duet "No Air" nearly 15 years after it release.


title: Chris Brown

text: On September 4, 2022, Brown won international artiste of the year at the 15th annual Headies awards. The category is designed for non-African artists or groups with outstanding achievements and impact on Afrobeats. In September


title: Chris Brown

text: 2022, with the official release of "Under the Influence", Brown became the first R&B singer in history to chart over fifty top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. On October 14, 2022, Brown appeared as a special guest at Usher's Las Vegas Residency to perform a few songs, including Back to Sleep (Remix), Under the Influence and Heat. During the show Usher took a moment to give Brown his flowers. “I love you. You a great. You’re a legend. We love you and we gon’ continue to keep lifting you up,” said Usher. On November 9, 2022, Brown took to his Instagram stories to state that he's working on a new Christmas single for release during the Holiday season.


title: Chris Brown

text: Brown has cited a number of artists as his inspiration, predominantly Michael Jackson. Brown emphasizes "Michael Jackson is the reason why I do music and why I am an entertainer." In "Fine China", he exemplifies Jackson's influence both musically and visually as "Ebony" magazine's Britini Danielle asserted that the song was "reminiscent of Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall"". Choreographically, MTV noticed that it "takes distinct visual cues from classic clips like 'Smooth Criminal' and 'Beat It'", while "Billboard" complimented his appearance by calling it "a modern way to channel the King of Pop". Usher is also another influence who comes across as a more contemporary figure for Brown. He tells Vibe magazine "He was the one who the youngsters looked up to. I know that we, in the dancing and singing world, looked up to him", and maintains "If it wasn't for Usher, then Chris Brown couldn't exist". Other influences include Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Ginuwine, Phil Collins, Bobby Brown and R. Kelly. When it comes to his rapping he cited Naughty by Nature, Tupac, Lil' Wayne and Rakim as the rappers he's inspired by.


title: Chris Brown

text: Music critics have commended Brown's introduction to R&B, recognizing his versatility, and considering him an evolver of the genre. His musical style has often been defined as polyhedric. Lyana Robertson of "Vibe" says "As traditional R&B flourished around him, the young singer began an evolution of the genre". She saw his debut single "Run It!" as a "prelude to what Brown would continue to do for the next decade: relentlessly disrupt the constructs of rhythm and blues." By his second album "Exclusive", she says he was "tapping more electric up-tempos, swimming deep in hip-hop waters and annihilating the pop arena". Describing the Grammy Award winning "F.A.M.E." as "his most diverse offering to date", she remarked "There was no level of musical flexibility comparable. There still isn't." "F.A.M.E." is considered to be the album that defined Brown's musical style and persona.


title: Chris Brown

text: Brown is considered to be, by a big part of critics and general public, the biggest R&B artist of the 2010s, with Andy Kellman of AllMusic crediting him as the "spearhead" of the genre during the period. Brad Wete of "Billboard" said that his sixth album "X" showcased "the height of his musical talents", while cultural critic and media personality Joe Budden defined his 2017 album "Heartbreak on a Full Moon" as "one of the greatest things ever happened to R&B music".


title: Chris Brown

text: Brown made his sound mixing the traditional sound of R&B adding different influences to it, most importantly hip hop and pop, but also several other genres in different songs, such as soul, dancehall, alternative R&B, house, EDM, afropop, trap, rock, disco and funk. The multitude of genres influencing his music can be heard in many of his singles, like "Deuces", "Sweet Love", "Liquor", "Zero", "Back to Love" or "Don't Check on Me". His pure side of R&B is densely shown on every album that he has done, even after that his music started to be more tinged from other genres, with some examples being "No BS", "Don't Judge Me", "Back To Sleep" and "Privacy".


title: Chris Brown

text: Throughout his career Brown has always had a strong influence from hip hop in his music, and following his 2010 mixtapes, he approached the genre differently, starting to rap frequently on mixtapes and features, adding to his albums straight hip-hop songs like "Look at Me Now", "Till I Die" and "Loyal", or by doing performances that switch from his R&B singing to his rapping, like he did in several tracks from his album "Heartbreak on a Full Moon". His dance-pop side in the single "Forever" off his second album "Exclusive" opened the door for many other Europop songs like "Yeah 3x", "Beautiful People", "Turn Up The Music" and "Don't Wake Me Up", but it began to be less present in his music starting from his album "X".


title: Chris Brown

text: Brown's lyrical production is typically considered to be "emotional" or "hedonistic". His songs mainly cover themes of sex, lovesickness, regret, romantic love, desire, fast life, and internal conflict, also having some introspections over loneliness and the dark side of fame. Along with his vocal and dancing abilities, his songwriting is considered to be one of the things that distincts him for the better compared to other R&B singers of his time. American media executive and radio personality Ebro Darden stated that Brown is the "most all-around talented person in R&B. Trey Songz is talented, but he can't dance like Chris Brown. Usher is probably the only one that could come close to him, but he doesn't have the songwriting abilities that Chris Brown has".


title: Chris Brown

text: Brown said in 2013, during an interview for "Rolling Stone", that his songs are always "derived from personal experiences, my personal life. Then creativity brings my reality to another dimention. That's what my songs are made of. I always like mixing reality with art".


title: Chris Brown

text: Brown possesses a light lyric tenor voice, which spans three and a half octaves, rising from the bass F♯ (F2) to its peak at the soprano C♯.(C♯6) His vocal ability was first recognized by his mother at a young age, as Brown tells People magazine "I was 11 and watching Usher perform 'My Way', and I started trying to mimic it. My mom was like, 'You can sing?' And I was like, 'Well, yeah, Mama.'" subsequently leading to the start of his career. "Take You Down" most notably earned him a Grammy award nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 2009.


title: Chris Brown

text: His vocal performances are characterized by his harmonization, timbre, vocal runs and soulfulness. While his voice on his first two albums, "Chris Brown" and "Exclusive", was considered to be "honeyed", due to his young age, with subsequent projects like "Graffiti" and "F.A.M.E." it was noted for maturing to a "more mature, distinctive and melodious voice", with Brown "coming into his own as a singer". On "F.A.M.E." critics noted huge flexibility in his voice, with Steve Jones of "USA Today" praising the singer's ability to "give top notch vocal performances in R&B, Europop, rap, rock and acoustic records". "X" and "Indigo" were noted for displaying his timbre, exemplifying his singing performances.


title: Chris Brown

text: His harmonizing was found by Andrew Unterberger of "Billboard" to be notably shown on his songs "Liquor" and "Go Crazy". On "Another Round", "Don't Judge Me" and "It Won't Stop" he did what was considered by Lee Hildebrand of "San Francisco Chronicle" to be "some of the most soothing and smooth singing of his discography". Jake Indiana of "Highsnobiety" said that his feature on Kanye West's song "Waves" is one of his best vocal performances, and that it "sounds like ascending to heaven with a choir of angels at your back". The singer was particularly noted for his emotional singing that illustrated his vocal range on songs like "Covered In You", "Lost & Found", "No Guidance" and "Red". On tracks like "Look at Me Now", "No Romeo No Juliet" and "Stranger Things" he displayed his ability of fast-rapping.


title: Chris Brown

text: Brown's dancing abilities and stage presence are widely praised, receiving broad comparisons to those of Michael Jackson. According to Brown, he taught himself how to dance by imitating Jackson's moves since childhood, then developing his own distinct style throughout his career. Most of his music videos feature complex choreographies, including the "futuristic" "Turn Up the Music", the Jackson-inspired choreography of "Fine China", "Zero", where he displayed different dancing styles, including popping and his signature spin move, "Party", where he showcased his remarked footwork, and "Heat", described by "The Source" as a "silky smooth choreography that shows Brown's unmatchable dancing talent in the classiest way". Some of his most notable dancing live performances include his "Thriller" recreation at the 2006 World Music Awards, his medley at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, where he performed a choreography that included flying parts, and his 2015 freestyled dancing over Future's "March Madness" at the Vestival The Hague Malieveld, that included a highly acclaimed front-flip, done with no hands by standing still, landed perfectly on beat.


title: Chris Brown

text: In films such as "Stomp the Yard" and "Battle of the Year", Brown displayed his ability to breakdance while in-character.


title: Chris Brown

text: Aside from his musical career, he was noted for markedly producing graffiti art. His visual works have been described as "manga-inspired" and "abstract". Brown said that he painted since his childhood, saying "my first approach with it was painting school walls" saying that he's always been captivated by the fact that drawing and painting "gives you the chance to express yourself in whatever way, showing to the world your own dimension".


title: Chris Brown

text: Brown has produced street art under the pseudonym Konfused, partnering with street artist Kai to produce works for the Miami Basel. The singer painted the buildings of different radio stations such as Hot 97. In 2015 he worked on some of the walls of The Grammy Museum, mixing his spray paint drawings with images of James Brown, Prince, Michael Jackson and himself. Brown has made graffiti works for different cities worldwide, including Los Angeles, London and Amsterdam.


title: Chris Brown

text: His painting and dancing skills were shown at the same time when Brown, partnering with Spotify's Rap Caviar, painted "Heartbreak on a Full Moon"s album cover, mostly from dancing around the canvas. In 2020 he painted a mural in memory of Kobe Bryant, doing a portray that includes Kobe's face, a mamba, and a few pictures of Kobe dribbling and dunking a basketball.


title: Chris Brown

text: From 2007 to 2009, Brown dated singer Rihanna until their highly publicized domestic violence case. His emotional state following the happening was theme of a big part of his album "Graffiti". In 2009, Brown was linked with Girlicious singer Natalie Mejia after the pair were spotted leaving a tattoo parlor together. However Brown and Mejia later denied the report claiming they were only friends. In 2009, Brown reunited with an ex-girlfriend by the name of Erica Jackson from his hometown in Virginia. In 2010, Brown dated R&B singer Rhea who used to be a part of fellow Virginia native Pharrell's group N.E.R.D. Later in 2010, Brown dated Sports Illustrated model Jasmine Sanders. Brown and Sanders also reuinted briefly in 2019. In 2011, Brown dated model Draya Michele who stated that Brown was a great boyfriend in spite of the public perception against him. Despite their split Brown and Michele have remained friends over the years. In 2011, Brown began dating Karrueche Tran, whom he had met while she was working in a retail store. In October 2012, Brown announced that he ended his relationship with Tran because he did not "want to see her hurt over my friendship with Rihanna." The day after the announcement, Brown released a video entitled "The Real Chris Brown", which features images of himself, Tran, and Rihanna, as Brown wonders, "Is there such thing as loving two people? I don't know if it's possible, but I feel like that."


title: Chris Brown

text: In February 2012, Rihanna and Brown dropped surprise remixes to their singles Turn Up The Music and Birthday Cake, which all but alluded to a reconciliation. In January 2013, Rihanna confirmed that she and Brown had resumed their romantic relationship, stating, "It's different now. We don't have those types of arguments anymore. We talk about shit. We value each other. We know exactly what we have now, and we don't want to lose that." Speaking of Brown, Rihanna also said, "He's not the monster everybody thinks. He's a good person. He has a fantastic heart. He's giving and loving. And he's fun to be around. That's what I love about him – he always makes me laugh. All I want to do is laugh, really – and I do that with him". Rihanna and Brown collaborated again on a duet song off Rihanna's Unapologetic album titled Nobody's Business. In a May 2013 interview, Brown stated that he and Rihanna had broken up again. He subsequently reunited with Tran, but they parted ways following confirmation of Brown's daughter with Nia Guzman in 2015. His breakup with Tran inspired several songs off his albums "Royalty" and "Heartbreak on a Full Moon". In 2017, Brown dated model Vanessa Vargas in his first public relationship since his split with ex-girlfriend Karrueche. Later in 2017 and 2018, Brown dated Indonesian pop singer Agnez Mo. Brown and Mo also released a single together entitled "Overdose". In 2019, Brown dated model Indya Marie who he had met while filming a music video with Eric Bellinger for their collaboration Type a Way. On November 20, 2019, Brown welcomed his second child, a son, with girlfriend Ammika Harris (Pietzker). His third child, a daughter, was born in 2022.


title: Chris Brown

text: When discussing his upbringing, Brown stated: "We were used to two pairs of shoes for a school year. We used to go to church every day. I was one of those kids that had more church clothes than school clothes." He has also discussed his second work of grace, saying that "he experienced the Holy Ghost while performing 'His Eye Is on the Sparrow' in church". After being released from jail on June 2, 2014, Brown wrote that he was "Humbled and Blessed" and tweeted the words "Thank you GOD."


title: Chris Brown

text: In 2015, he said during an interview for "Vibe", that God is the only thing that he's afraid of. Speaking about prayers he said "I pray everyday, I think we pray unconsciously too. Personally I don't pray for success. I pray for knowledge for understanding and peace of mind. I really try to pray for that because it's a big world, and you can get wrapped up in it trying to please every city. So I just try to get a peace of mind and me understanding that being at peace with my flaws and my talents. I'm cool with that. That's why I think once He shows me certain things, or even the choices that I make, and decisions that I make that are healthy for me. He shows me the right path. When I bless other people, He always blesses me. It's not even about a self-serving journey; it's about just learning. I want to learn people's experiences. I want to give them experiences too."


title: Chris Brown

text: At around 12:30 a.m. (PST) on February 8, 2009, Brown and his then-girlfriend, singer Rihanna, had an argument which escalated into physical violence, leaving Rihanna with visible severe facial injuries which required hospitalization. Brown turned himself in to the Los Angeles Police Department's Wilshire station at 6:30 p.m. (PST) and was booked under suspicion of making criminal threats. On June 22, 2009, Brown pleaded guilty to a felony and accepted a plea deal of community labor, five years of probation, and domestic violence counseling. On August 25, Brown received five years of probation. He was ordered to attend one year of domestic violence counseling and undergo six months of community service; the judge retained a five-year restraining order on Brown, which required him to remain 50 yards (45.72 meters) away from Rihanna, reduced to 10 yards at public events. On September 2, 2009, Brown spoke about the domestic violence case in a pre-recorded "Larry King Live" interview, his first public interview about the matter. He was accompanied to the interview by his mother, Joyce Hawkins, and attorney Mark Geragos, as he discussed growing up in a household with his mother being repeatedly assaulted by his stepfather. Brown said of hearing details of his assault of Rihanna, "I'm in shock, because, first of all, that's not who I am as a person, and that's not who I promise I want to be." In February 2011, at the request of Brown's and Rihanna's lawyers, Mark Geragos and Donald Eltra, Judge Patricia Schnegg modified the restraining order to a "level one order", allowing both singers to appear at awards shows together in the future.


title: Chris Brown

text: On July 11, 2012, Brown's community service was evaluated and he was ordered to meet a judge. The evaluation was ordered by Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg on July 10, 2012. He was scheduled to appear in court with regard to the evaluation on August 21, 2012. While conducting his community service in Virginia, however, Brown was tested positive for cannabis and appeared in court on September 25, 2012, at which time his hearing date was changed to November, to determine whether or not he had violated the terms of his court order. On March 20, 2015, Brown's probation ended, formally closing the felony case emanating from the Rihanna assault which happened over six years prior.


title: Chris Brown

text: In a 2017 self-documentary, "Welcome to My Life", Brown goes into detail about the abusive relationship, saying he intended to marry Rihanna, but that she lost trust in him after finding out that he lied about a prior relationship someone who worked with him. Brown also provided a detailed description on how the known fight went down.


title: Chris Brown

text: On June 14, 2012, Drake and his entourage were involved in a scuffle with Brown at a nightclub called WIP in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. About eight people were injured during the brawl, including San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker, who had to have surgery to remove a piece of glass from his eye. Drake was not arrested. Brown's attorney alleged Drake was the instigator. Brown himself tweeted about the incident and publicly criticized Drake weeks later.


title: Chris Brown

text: In January 2013, Brown was involved in an altercation with Frank Ocean over a parking space, outside a recording studio in West Hollywood. Police officers in Los Angeles said that Brown was under investigation, describing the incident as "battery" due to Brown allegedly punching Ocean. Although Ocean alleged that Brown had threatened to shoot him, he said he would not press charges. Fellow artist Sean Kingston who was present at the scene alleged that Ocean and his cousin instigated the incident and were at fault. Brown later sued Ocean and his cousin for the incident and the matter was eventually settled out of court.


title: Chris Brown

text: In July 2013, Brown's probation was revoked after he was involved in an alleged hit-and-run in Los Angeles. He was released from court and was scheduled to reappear in August 2013, to learn whether or not he would serve time in prison. The charges would later be dropped, but Brown would have 1,000 additional hours of community service added to his probation terms. In October 2013, Brown was arrested for felony assault in Washington, D.C., after refusing to take a picture with a man, and throwing a punch which broke the man's nose. The charge was reduced to a misdemeanor. Brown spent 36 hours in a Washington jail and was taken to court in shackles. He was released and ordered to report to his California probation officer within 48 hours.


title: Chris Brown

text: On October 30, 2013, Brown voluntarily decided to enter rehab. After Brown completed his 90 days, the judge ordered him to remain a resident at the Malibu treatment facility until a hearing on April 23, 2014. The deal was if Brown left rehab, he would go directly to jail. On March 14, 2014, Brown was kicked out of the rehab facility and sent to Northern Neck Regional Jail for violating internal rules. He was expected to be released on April 23, 2014, but a judge denied his release request from custody either on bail or his own recognizance. At his May 9, 2014, court date, Brown was ordered to serve 131 days in jail for his probation violation. He was sentenced to serve 365 days in custody; however, he was given credit for the 234 days he has already spent in rehab and jail. During Brown's rehab, a probation officer noted in a letter that Brown's brushes with the law may have been caused by untreated bipolar disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder, specifically that "Mr. Brown became aggressive and acted out physically due to his untreated mental health disorder, severe sleep deprivation, inappropriate self-medicating and untreated PTSD". According to the court documents, which were received by E! News and later The Hollywood Reporter, Brown was formally diagnosed with both Bipolar II and PTSD at the unnamed rehab facility.


title: Chris Brown

text: In the early hours of August 30, 2016, a woman called the police and falsely accused Brown of threatening her with a gun inside his house. Police were called, but Brown denied them entry without a warrant. When they returned with one, Brown refused them entry and began what news sources referred to as a "standoff" with the LAPD, including the robbery-homicide division and SWAT team. During this time, Brown was seen posting videos on Instagram, in which he rails against the police and the media coverage of the activity at his house. He denounced media reports that he was "barricaded" inside his house, complained about the helicopters flying overhead, and called the police "idiots" and "the worst gang in the world." He said that he was innocent and "What I do care about is you are defacing my name and my character and integrity". Brown was arrested and later released from jail on $250,000 bail. On September 1, 2016, Brown's lawyer, Mark Geragos, stated that there was no standoff and that, with regard to the LAPD search, "nothing was found to corroborate her statement." Charges were later dropped after prosecutors declined to arraign Brown on the felony charges. Brown later sued the accuser for defamation, prevailing in the lawsuit, after an investigation that proved that the defendant brought to court false and defamatory statements about the singer, through her incriminating text messages where she said "don't you know this freak Chris Brown is kicking me out of his house because I called his friend jewelry fake can you come get me my Uber is messing up if not I'm going to set him up and call the cops and say that he tried to shoot me and that will teach him a lesson I'm going to set his a** up." Brown later said through his social media accounts "Because of my past, my character keeps on being defaced by these fake news and allegations highlighted by the media, but I'm glad that all my real supporters know who i really am and can see the truth."


title: Chris Brown

text: In January 2022, a woman filed a civil suit falsely accusing Brown of raping her on a yacht in Miami in December 2020. The woman attempted to sue Brown for $20 million. Brown denied the allegations and later submitted text messages to the Miami police department which proved his innocence and indicated a consensual relationship with the accuser. According to TMZ, Brown plans to counter sue the accuser for defamation for making false accusations and the accuser's lawyer dropped the case against him indicating that she was unaware of the messages and the specifics of their relationship.


title: Chris Brown

text: In 2007, Brown founded the record label CBE ("Chris Brown Entertainment" or "Culture Beyond Evolution"), under Interscope Records. Brown has since signed frequent collaborator Kevin McCall, singer Sabrina Antoinette, former RichGirl member Sevyn Streeter, singer-songwriter Joelle James, and rock group U.G.L.Y. However, from 2014 the label started to sign exclusively Brown's works.


title: Chris Brown

text: Brown has stated he owns fourteen Burger King restaurants. In 2012, he launched a streetwear clothing line called "Black Pyramid", in collaboration with the founders of the "Pink + Dolphin" clothing line. In 2016 the clothing label was set for larger release, partnering with streetwear clothing lines such as "Snipes" for a worldwide distribution, also being distributed through its own "Black Pyramid" boutiques.


title: Chris Brown

text: On November 11, 2021, the singer launched his own cereal, "Breezy's Cosmic Crunch", partnering with SoFlo Snacks for this limited edition of collectible breakfast cereal.


title: Chris Brown

text: Brown has headlined multiple arenas tours in North America, Europe and World-Wide. Additionally, he has co-headlined two separate North American tours with Trey Songz and Lil Baby and served as a supporting act on tours for industry peers such as Rihanna, Drake, Lil Wayne and Beyoncé. In total, Brown has earned approximately $157 million from 279 concerts over the course of his career – making him one of the highest grossing African American touring artists of all time.


title: Free Guy

text: Free Guy is a 2021 American science fiction action comedy film directed and produced by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, and a story by Lieberman. The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Joe Keery, and Taika Waititi. It tells the story of a bank teller who discovers that he is a non-player character in a massively multiplayer online game who then partners with a player to find evidence that a gaming company's CEO stole the player's game's source code.


title: Free Guy

text: "Free Guy" premiered at the Piazza Grande section of the 74th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on August 10, 2021. Following a year-long delay as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was released theatrically in the United States three days later on August 13 in RealD 3D, IMAX, 4DX and Dolby Cinema formats by 20th Century Studios. It grossed $331.5 million worldwide. The film received positive reviews from critics for the concept, comparing it to science fiction films and action video games such as "Ready Player One", "The Truman Show", "The Matrix", "Grand Theft Auto", and "Fortnite". The film received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 94th Academy Awards. A sequel is in development.


title: Free Guy

text: "Free City" is a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game (MMORPG), where the players are distinguished from the non-player characters (NPCs) by the sunglasses they wear, and spend their time robbing banks, fighting each other, and causing mayhem. Unaware that the world they live in is a video game, the NPCs are mostly oblivious to the chaos caused by players, while living out their scripted lives. Unemployed software developer Millie Rusk spends her time playing "Free City" to find proof that Soonami Studios stole the source code from the concept game she developed, "Life Itself", which included novel artificial intelligence techniques for its NPCs. Her friend Walter "Keys" McKey is sympathetic, but reluctant to help, as he now works in technical support at Soonami.


title: Free Guy

text: Meanwhile, Guy, an NPC who works as a bank teller alongside his best friend, a security guard named Buddy, meets Millie's avatar "MolotovGirl", who catches his attention by singing his favorite song "Fantasy". Afterwards, he begins to deviate from his programming, shocking Buddy by accidentally shooting a skull-masked player robbing the bank and leaving with his sunglasses. Believing Guy to be a hacker disguised as an NPC, Keys and his coworker Mouser unsuccessfully try to ban him from the game. Accessing the players' view of the game, Guy visits new areas and meets Millie at Revenjamin Buttons' stash house, which holds evidence of her source code. Believing Guy to be a novice player, she advises him to level up after their first break-in attempt fails. Guy rapidly progresses through the game by completing missions benevolently, standing out from other players and becoming a worldwide sensation known as "Blue Shirt Guy" while Soonami Studios' CEO Antwan Hovachelik has the art nerds roid out his design for the sequel, "Free City 2".


title: Free Guy

text: As Keys eventually realizes that Guy truly is an NPC, other NPCs that Guy interacts with also begin to develop self-awareness. Keys learns that "Free City 2" is due to release in 48 hours and will completely replace "Free City", effectively terminating all of the game's NPCs. After Keys informs Millie, she tells Guy the truth about his existence, but he becomes frustrated and breaks off contact. Guy talks with Buddy and realizes that there is something more to their reality. Buddy helps Guy to get the evidence Millie wanted from Revenjamin Buttons. Antwan sees that the popularity of Blue Shirt Guy threatens his plans to launch "Free City 2" and orders a server reboot, which resets Guy's memories. Guy regains his self-awareness when Millie kisses him.


title: Free Guy

text: Guy recalls the location of an island containing remnants of the "Life Itself" source code and they attempt to reach the island before the "Free City 2" launch wipes all old content from the servers. Antwan fires Keys, has every player removed from "Free City", and sends an unfinished, muscle-bound character who resembles Guy named Dude into the game. Initially overwhelmed, Guy puts the sunglasses on Dude, distracting him and allowing Guy to proceed to the island. In a last-ditch attempt to stop him, Antwan begins smashing the game servers in the Soonami offices with a fire axe, erasing Buddy and much of the game world, while firing Mouser. Before he can destroy the final server, Millie offers a deal to abandon her lawsuit and surrender the profits of the "Free City" franchise to him in exchange for her creation.


title: Free Guy

text: Sometime later, sales for "Free City 2" have slipped because of bugs in the code and lagging online play. An embattled Antwan is in the crosshairs, but claims he is a "victim". Meanwhile, Millie salvages her code and releases the indie game "Free Life", which includes Guy, Dude, and the other NPCs from "Free City". In the game, Guy reveals to Millie that his code is, in fact, a love letter to her from Keys. During the development of "Life Itself", Keys had encoded what he knew about her tastes into an AI routine in the game, which was eventually incorporated into "Free City". This explains why Guy felt uniquely drawn to MolotovGirl. After Millie leaves the game, she and Keys share a kiss. Back in "Free Life", Guy and Dude reunite with Buddy, who was among those NPCs reconstructed.


title: Free Guy

text: Recurring NPCs in "Free City" include Britne Oldford as Missy, a barista; Camille Kostek as the bombshell that was originally associated with Revenjamin Buttons and bank robber #3 before befriending Missy; Mark Lainer as a bank hostage who always has his hands up; Mike Devine as Officer Johnny, a police officer that Guy knows; Sophie Levy as a big city dreamer; Vernon Scott as the manager of the bank that Guy and Buddy work at who would get attacked by bank robbers as part of a "Free City" bonus; Naheem Garcia as Joe, a convenience store owner whose store is always robbed by the players while being thrown through his window; Anabel Graetz as Phyllis, an elderly cat lady who needs help finding her cats; Ric Plamenco as an ice cream vendor in the part of "Free City" where no quests are; Kenneth Israel as a businessman; Michael Malvesti as a newsstand vendor; Michael Tow as a man who quotes "looks like rain"; Colin Allen as a shoe store clerk; and Bob Gilliam as a news anchor.


title: Free Guy

text: Soonami Studios' staff include Jonathan De Azevedo as Jonathan, the personal assistant of Antwan; Destiny Claymore as one of the art nerds at Soonami Studios that develop Dude; Minh-Ahn Day as a Soonami Studios employee that informs Antwan that no retailer will carry their bloody zombie video game due to concerns about its nature; and Jose Guns Alves as a Soonami Studios security guard.


title: Free Guy

text: The film features cameo appearances from gamers and streamers Jacksepticeye, Ninja, Pokimane, DanTDM, and LazarBeam who, in the film, provide commentary on Guy and "Free City" on their respective YouTube and Twitch channels from their own perspectives.


title: Free Guy

text: Actor Chris Evans and "Good Morning America" host Lara Spencer make cameo appearances as themselves. "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek makes a posthumous cameo appearance in his final film role after his death on November 8, 2020.


title: Free Guy

text: Other voice roles in the film include Hugh Jackman as a masked avatar in an alley (physically portrayed by Patrick Vincent Curran) who MolotovGirl gets the location to Revenjamin Buttons' stash house from, Dwayne Johnson as bank robber #2 (physically portrayed by Owen Burke) whom Guy accidentally shoots while trying to claim his sunglasses, Tina Fey as Keith's mother (portrayed by Regina Taufen) who was vacuuming in the background, and John Krasinski as a silhouetted gamer (physically portrayed by Rosario Corso) who comments about Guy and the NPCs alongside the previously-mentioned gamers and streamers.


title: Free Guy

text: In August 2016, Matt Lieberman spent three weeks writing the first draft of the spec script for "Free Guy". This was sold and entered development at 20th Century Fox prior to being acquired by The Walt Disney Company. "Free Guy" is one of the first Fox films to continue production under Disney's ownership, as well as under the studio's new name of 20th Century Studios. Director Shawn Levy read the script in 2016 but passed on it. After he was introduced to Ryan Reynolds by Hugh Jackman, a mutual friend, Levy and Reynolds later decided to work on "Free Guy" after rereading it together. Reynolds, who also produced the film, said, "I haven't been this fully immersed and engaged in something since "Deadpool"." Levy had previously been attached to the film "Uncharted", an adaptation of the video game series of the same name, before he left to make "Free Guy".


title: Free Guy

text: Principal photography began on May 14, 2019, in Boston, mostly around the city's Financial District. It also took place in the Massachusetts cities of Worcester, Framingham (in the former Framingham Savings Bank building), and Weymouth (at the former Naval Air Station), as well as at Revere Beach and the Paramount Pictures studio headquarters in Los Angeles, California. Filming concluded on July 31, 2019.


title: Free Guy

text: Levy decided to hire production designer Ethan Tobman over other candidates with more feature film experience after being inspired by the energy he brought to the project. Together they created a visual bible laying out the rules for their video game world. To split the real world from the in-game look they specified colors, lenses, composition and framing, camera movement, and other details. Levy found it liberating to be influenced by other games and films but not required to make a direct adaptation of an existing franchise. Tobman said the film's game-world design drew primary inspiration from games like "SimCity", "The Sims" and "Red Dead Redemption 2", while also acknowledging thematic inspiration from "Grand Theft Auto" and "Fortnite".


title: Free Guy

text: The film features several weapons from other video game and film franchises, including a Mega Buster, a lightsaber from the "Star Wars" series, one of "Fortnite" pickaxes, the gravity gun from "Half-Life 2", the portal gun from "Portal", as well as Captain America's shield and Hulk's fist from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When the film was acquired by Disney, which owns the Marvel and "Star Wars" franchises, the filmmakers asked for permission to use such iconic weapons as a lightsaber and Captain America's shield, and were granted permission to use everything they requested. The cameo by Chris Evans was suggested by Reynolds' wife Blake Lively. Levy contacted Evans, who was already in Boston shooting "Defending Jacob" and asked if he would come by for ten minutes, and he agreed.


title: Free Guy

text: The film's score was composed by Christophe Beck. Portions of the film's score are sampled from the Disney animated short film "Paperman", which Beck had previously scored. Levy had originally intended to use the song "Your Love" by the Outfield, but Reynolds suggested using "Fantasy" by Mariah Carey instead. Reynolds talked to Carey about obtaining permission to use it and she allowed them to use the song throughout the film. A cover version of "Fantasy" sung by Comer was also used in the film.


title: Free Guy

text: When promoting the film in 2019, Reynolds and Waititi joked that it was nice to work together for the first time, pretending that they knew nothing about the "Green Lantern" film. In July 2021, Reynolds released a video on YouTube titled "Deadpool and Korg React", in which he reprised his role as Wade Wilson/Deadpool from the "X-Men" film series and Waititi reprised his role as Korg from the Marvel Cinematic Universe reacting to the trailer to "Free Guy".


title: Free Guy

text: On August 12, 2021, Dude became a purchasable outfit in the video game "Fortnite" alongside a series of optional quests placed into the game to allow players to unlock an emote with Reynolds's voice. "Free Guy"s marketing team created parody posters in the style of other video games, including "Super Mario 64", "Minecraft", "Among Us", "", "Mega Man", "Street Fighter II", "Doom", and "".


title: Free Guy

text: "Free Guy" was released in the United States on August 13, 2021 in RealD 3D, IMAX, 4DX and Dolby Cinema formats. It was the first film from Walt Disney Studios during the COVID-19 pandemic released exclusively to theaters for 45 days before releasing on streaming services. The film was initially scheduled to be released on July 3, 2020, but it was delayed because of the pandemic. It was then moved to December 11, 2020. In November 2020, the studio removed the film, along with "Death on the Nile", from its upcoming release schedule until further notice. The next month, the film was rescheduled to May 21, 2021. In March, Ryan Reynolds announced that "Free Guy" was delayed to its August date. The film premiered at the Piazza Grande section of the 74th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland in August 2021.


title: Free Guy

text: "Free Guy" was released on digital on September 28, 2021, 45 days after its theatrical release, and was released on 4K, DVD, and Blu-ray by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on October 12, two months after its theatrical release. It was added to Disney+ and HBO Max in the United States on February 23, 2022. According to Samba TV, the film was watched by 2.5 million US households in its first five days of streaming on Disney+ and HBO Max. According to the streaming aggregator Justwatch, "Free Guy" was the most streamed film across all platforms in the United States, during the week ending February 27, 2022.


title: Free Guy

text: "Free Guy" grossed $121.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $209.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $331.5 million.


title: Free Guy

text: In the United States and Canada, "Free Guy" was released alongside "Respect" and "Don't Breathe 2", and was initially projected to gross $15–18 million from 4,165 theaters in its opening weekend. However, after making $10.5 million on its first day (including $2.2 million from Thursday-night previews), estimates were raised to $26 million. It went on to debut to $28.4 million, topping the box office. The film made $18.5 million in its second weekend, remaining in first. The drop of just 34% marked the smallest second-weekend decline of any wide release of the summer, and the second-best of Reynolds' career. Although it was dethroned by newcomer "Candyman", the film continued to hold well in its third weekend, falling just 27% to $13.6 million.


title: Free Guy

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews and an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, "Combining a clever concept, sweet, self-aware humor, and a charming cast, "Free Guy" is frivolous fun." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100 based on 51 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Free Guy

text: Writing for "Variety", Peter Debruge called the film an "at-times unwieldy mashup of multiple-reality blockbusters like "The Matrix" and "The Lego Movie"" and said that ""Free Guy" is a lot of fun, despite the fact that Levy and the screenwriters seem to be changing the rules as they go." Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" lauded both the "perfectly cast" Reynolds and "superb and charming Jodie Comer." Giving the film three out of four stars, he wrote "Thanks in large part to the vibrant, funny, sweet, endearing work by Reynolds and Comer, "Free Guy" delivers."


title: Free Guy

text: A.A. Dowd of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a C+ grade and said, "For all its casual mayhem, "Free Guy" turns out to be a rather cuddly crowdpleaser, a high-concept blockbuster trifle with bubblegum ice cream clogging its circuits." Dowd contrasted the film with "The Truman Show", saying "Reynolds replicates that slightly unhinged Truman Burbank grin but not the desperation behind it." Nick De Semlyen of Empire was critical of the film; he compared it unfavorably to 2018's "Ready Player One", and said that although it is "eager to please" it "doesn't really hang together, even as you're watching it.".


title: Free Guy

text: On August 14, 2021, following the film's successful first-day box-office gross, Reynolds confirmed that Disney wanted a sequel. In March 2022, Steve Asbell, president of 20th Century Studios, said a script was being submitted shortly and called the sequel "a fantastic story".


title: God of War (franchise)

text: God of War is an action-adventure game franchise created by David Jaffe at Sony's Santa Monica Studio. It began in 2005 on the PlayStation 2 (PS2) video game console and has become a flagship series for PlayStation, consisting of nine installments across multiple platforms. Based on ancient mythologies, the story follows Kratos, a Spartan warrior and later the Greek God of War, who was tricked into killing his family by his former master, the original Greek God of War Ares. This sets off a series of events that leads to wars with the different mythological pantheons. The Greek-based games see Kratos follow a path of vengeance due to the machinations of the Olympian gods, while the Norse-based games, which introduce his son Atreus as a secondary protagonist, show Kratos on a path of redemption and inadvertently coming into conflict with the Norse gods.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: Santa Monica has developed all main entries, while Ready at Dawn and Javaground/Sony Online Entertainment-Los Angeles (SOE-LA) developed the three side games. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has published all games except the mobile phone installment, which was published by Sony Pictures Digital. The first seven games make up the Greek era of the franchise. "God of War" (2005), "God of War II" (2007), and "God of War III" (2010) comprise its main trilogy; the first two were released on the PS2 with the third on the PlayStation 3 (PS3). A prequel, "" (2013), was also released for the PS3. Other games include "" (2008) and "" (2010) for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and "" (2007) for mobile phones that supported the Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME). The Norse era began with the 2018 game "God of War" and released for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and later Windows in January 2022. It was accompanied by a short prequel, "" (2018), a text-based game through Facebook Messenger. A sequel, "Ragnarök", was released in November 2022 on the PS4 and PlayStation 5 (PS5) and concluded the Norse era.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: Games in the series have been praised as some of the best action games of all time. The series has received numerous awards, including several Game of the Year recognitions for the 2005 and 2018 installments. Some games have also been remastered for newer PlayStation platforms. As of November 2020, the franchise has sold over 51 million games worldwide. Strong sales and support of the series led to the franchise's expansion into other media, such as three comic book series and three novels. A film adaptation of the original installment had been in development but was ultimately canceled; however, a television series adaptation of the Norse era is in development for Amazon Prime Video. Merchandise includes artwork, clothing, toys, and prop replicas, as well as the games' soundtracks, including a heavy metal album, "" (2010), featuring original music by various bands who were inspired by the series.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: God of War was first released in North America on March 22, 2005, for the PlayStation 2. After ten years in the service of the Olympian gods, Spartan soldier Kratos is tasked by Athena to find Pandora's box, the key to defeating Ares, the God of War, who is running amok through Athens. A series of flashbacks reveals that Kratos was once the servant of Ares, who saved Kratos and his army from annihilation in battle, but tricked him into killing his family, which forced his metamorphosis into the "Ghost of Sparta". Kratos eventually finds Pandora's Box, and after finally killing Ares, he ascends to Mount Olympus to become the new God of War.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: God of War II was first released in North America on March 13, 2007, for the PlayStation 2. Angered at his fellow gods, Kratos runs amok across the city of Rhodes. Zeus intervenes and betrays Kratos, who is saved by the Titan Gaia. She tells him he must now find the Sisters of Fate, who can change his fate and prevent his death at the hands of Zeus. Kratos is ultimately successful and as he is about to kill the god, Athena sacrifices herself to save Zeus and preserve Olympus, and tells Kratos that he is Zeus' son and that he betrayed Kratos out of fear. Kratos then joins forces with Gaia and the Titans to attack Olympus.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: God of War III was first released in North America on March 16, 2010, for the PlayStation 3. Reigniting the Great War, Kratos is soon abandoned by the Titans, who were only using him to exact their own revenge. Now seeking revenge against both the Titans and Olympian gods, he is helped by the spirit of Athena, who was elevated to a new level of understanding and instructs him to seek the Flame of Olympus in order to defeat Zeus. Kratos engages the gods and the Titans in a series of battles across the Underworld and Olympus and learns that Pandora's Box is within the Flame. He discovers that Pandora herself is the key to pacifying the Flame and allowing him to open the Box, at the expense of her life. After finally killing Zeus and with Olympus destroyed, Kratos refuses to help Athena assume the role of new patron of mankind and disappears.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: is a short text-based game, released through Facebook Messenger on February 1, 2018. The game serves as a prequel story to 2018's "God of War", and follows Atreus on his first adventure in the Norse wilds. Additionally, a smartphone companion app called "" released on April 17, 2018, and provides some background for the Norse setting.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: God of War was released worldwide on April 20, 2018, for the PlayStation 4, and for Windows (PC) through Steam on January 14, 2022, which marked the first main installment released on a non-PlayStation platform. The game was a new direction for the series, not only by its new mythological setting, but also by its gameplay. Many years after the events of "God of War III", Kratos has ended up in the world of Norse mythology in ancient Norway in the realm of Midgard, and has a son named Atreus. After Kratos' second wife—Atreus' mother—Faye passes away, the two set out on a journey to fulfill her final wish of spreading her ashes at the highest peak of the nine realms, later revealed to be in Jötunheim by new ally Mímir. Along their journey, they are attacked by the Æsir god Baldur, who was sent by the Allfather Odin to get to Faye in order to prevent Ragnarök, unaware she had died. After Kratos eventually kills Baldur, the three-year-long Fimbulwinter begins, with Ragnarök soon to follow. While Baldur's mother, the Vanir goddess Freya, swears revenge on Kratos, he and Atreus complete their journey and discover that Faye was a Giant who had foreseen the future and that Atreus was originally named Loki.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: God of War Ragnarök was released worldwide on November 9, 2022, for the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5, marking the first cross-gen release in the series. At the end of the three-year Fimbulwinter, Kratos, Atreus, and Mímir are confronted by Odin and the God of Thunder Thor. After dueling Thor, Kratos, Atreus, and Mímir set out on a journey across the nine realms in hopes of finding a way to prevent Ragnarök. Along the way, they are confronted by a vengeful Freya, but they eventually make amends. Unable to prevent Ragnarök, Kratos, Atreus, and their allies unite the realms in a war against Asgard. Kratos battles Thor once again, but Thor is killed by Odin for refusing to kill Kratos. Kratos, Atreus, Mímir, and Freya then engage Odin in battle and defeat the Allfather as Asgard is destroyed. Returning home to Midgard, Atreus, as Loki, decides that he needs to go and find any remaining Giants and bids a heartfelt farewell while Kratos learns that he is destined to become a revered god and along with Freya and Mímir, begins rebuilding the realms and restore peace.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: God of War Collection was first released in North America on November 17, 2009, for the PlayStation 3—the franchise's first appearance on the platform. It is a remastered port of the original "God of War "and "God of War II". The games were ported by Bluepoint Games and feature high-definition 1080p anti-aliased graphics at 60 frames per second and trophies. Sanzaru Games later ported the collection to the PlayStation Vita and it was released in May 2014—the franchise's only appearance on this platform.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: God of War Saga was released in North America on August 28, 2012. It is a collection of five of the "God of War" games for the PlayStation 3, released as part of Sony's PlayStation Collections line. The collection includes the original "God of War", "God of War II", "God of War III", "Chains of Olympus", and "Ghost of Sparta". It features two Blu-ray Discs—"God of War I" and "II" on the first and "III" on the second—and a voucher to download "Chains of Olympus" and "Ghost of Sparta". The games retain the same features as their first PS3 releases.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: God of War III Remastered was first released in North America on July 14, 2015, for the PlayStation 4—the franchise's first appearance on the platform. It is a remastered version of "God of War III", and features full 1080p support targeted at 60 frames per second, a photo mode, and all downloadable content of the original. The game's announcement and release was in celebration of the franchise's tenth anniversary. It was ported by Wholesale Algorithms.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: The series consists of eight single-player-only games, and one that includes multiplayer. Throughout the first era, the games featured a third-person, fixed cinematic camera with the exception of "Betrayal", which is the only installment to feature a 2D side-scrolling view. For 2018's "God of War" and "Ragnarök", the camera was switched from being fixed and became an over-the-shoulder free camera. A first-person camera is featured in "God of War III" and "Ascension" during certain scripted sequences. Throughout the series, the player controls the character Kratos in a combination of hack and slash combat, platforming, and puzzle game elements to achieve goals and complete the story (platforming elements were removed from the second era games due to the camera change). The 2018 installment added Kratos' son Atreus, and although the game is played entirely as Kratos, there are times when the player may choose to passively control Atreus (a button is dedicated to Atreus, and he will fire an arrow from his bow depending on where the camera is pointed). While Atreus is still an accompanying character in "Ragnarök" (in addition to a couple of other characters), there are some story missions where the player takes full control of Atreus; his combat is similar to Kratos' but he uses a bow.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: Throughout the Greek games, Kratos' main weapon is a pair of double-chained blades that appear in three iterations: the Blades of Chaos, the Blades of Athena (or Athena's Blades), and the Blades of Exile. They each perform similarly, but differ in the types of combos and amount of damage each yields, as well as cosmetic differences. Other weapons are also obtained during the games and vary in gameplay. Magic is also used, and four abilities are typically acquired. "God of War III" differs in that instead of separate abilities, there are four primary weapons that possess their own respective magic offensive. The game also features "Items"—additional secondary weapons with limited usage, such as the Bow of Apollo. With each new game, most weapons and magic are lost via a plot device, and a new arsenal of weapons and abilities are acquired during gameplay. "Ascension" differs from the previous games in that instead of acquiring new weapons that are kept throughout the entire game, the player collects up to five World Weapons (such as a sword or a javelin) that have limited usage. When there is not a World Weapon equipped, the player can punch or kick foes as part of a new mechanic added to the game. In the Norse games, Kratos' primary weapon is a magical battle axe called the Leviathan Axe. It can be thrown and summoned back to his hand, similar to Thor's hammer Mjölnir. Later on in 2018's "God of War", he recovers the Blades of Chaos, which is retained in "Ragnarök". They perform similarly as they did during the Greek games, but with different abilities. Both the Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos, as well as the Draupnir Spear introduced in "Ragnarök", can be upgraded to use special magical attacks called runic attacks. Each weapon has a light and heavy runic attack, and the player can choose which runic attacks to equip on the weapons.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: The series offers combo-based combat, and includes a quick time event (QTE) feature, also called context sensitive attacks, which is initiated when the player has weakened a foe or to perform a defensive maneuver. It allows limited control of Kratos during the QTE cinematic sequence; success ends the battle, while failure usually results in damage to the player. As well as the QTE system, "Ascension" features a prompt-less free-form system, allowing players the choice of when to attack or dodge based on the enemy's actions. A grab maneuver can be used on minor foes. The Norse games changed this up; after an enemy has been weakened enough, a prompt will appear above its head, and depending on the enemy, Kratos may rip it in half or grab them and throw them into other enemies, among other possible outcomes. He will also jump on top of and ride large enemies, such as ogres, causing them to attack other enemies, similar to the cyclopes in the Greek games.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: Relics, which the player can use in successive games (such as Poseidon's Trident obtained in the original "God of War" allowing Kratos to swim underwater for extended periods) are also found and necessary for game progression. Kratos often has a special ability, which provides temporary invulnerability and increased attack damage. This ability has become an ongoing feature of gameplay throughout the series—Rage of the Gods in the original "God of War" and "Ascension", Rage of the Titans in "God of War II", Rage of Sparta in "God of War III", and Thera's Bane in "Ghost of Sparta". This ability can be recharged by building hits on foes in combat, and gaining game-specific orbs. Thera's Bane, however, is recharged automatically. While Kratos does not retain any relics from the Greek era in 2018's "God of War", he does have a rage ability, called Spartan Rage, and with this ability, Kratos uses powerful bare-handed attacks, as opposed to weapons, to greatly damage enemies. "Ragnarök" enhanced the Spartan Rage ability, giving two other variants, one providing health and another delivering a powerful weapon attack depending on the weapon equipped.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: Gorgon Eyes and Phoenix Feathers, found throughout the Greek games in unmarked chests (white chests in "Ascension"), increase the maximum amount of health and magic, respectively. Minotaur Horns, which increase the Items and Fire meter's maximum length, are available in "God of War III" and "Ghost of Sparta", respectively. The Items meter allows the use of secondary weapons, called Items, and the Fire meter allows the use of the Thera's Bane ability. The meters are increased in increments and reach their maximum once a certain number of Eyes, Feathers, and Horns are found. Other chests contain green, blue, or red orbs. Green orbs replenish the player's health, blue orbs replenish magic allowing further usage, and red orbs provide experience points (XP) for upgrading weapons and magic for new, more powerful attacks, and replenish the Rage meter in the original "God of War". Gold orbs found in "God of War II" and "Ascension", and white orbs in "God of War III", replenish the Rage meter instead of red orbs; the Rage meter in "Ascension" is also refilled by landing attacks on foes. Chests with changing colors, which allow players to choose which meter to replenish, have also been available. Red orbs can also be collected by killing foes and destroying certain inanimate objects. Bosses and more powerful opponents release a combination of colored orbs when killed via the quick-time feature. For the Norse games, Apples of Iðunn replaced the Gorgon Eyes to increase the maximum length of the health meter, while Horns of Blood Mead increase the maximum length of the rage meter. While the Norse games retain green health orbs to replenish the health meter, magic is done differently. Instead of blue orbs, there is a cool down time on magical runic attacks. Once that cool down time is up, the magical runic attack can be used again. Furthermore, players accumulate different crafting resources, primarily Hacksilver, to create and purchase new items, such as new armor or upgrading existing armor and weapons, and XP is used for learning new combat skills. Chests in the Norse games provide a variety of different items.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: With the exception of "Ascension", each installment offers a challenge mode, which yields extra red orbs (or XP), secret costumes, and behind-the-scenes videos. Bonus content can also be unlocked by defeating the game's difficulty levels. The Norse games also include a challenge mode, located in the realm Muspelheim, which rewards various items upon completion. Battle arenas, which allow players to set difficulty levels and choose their own opponents, are included in "God of War II", "God of War III", and "Ghost of Sparta". Excluding "Betrayal", the Greek games were known for including a quick-time sex minigame in each installment until "Ascension", which dropped the mini-game.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: "Ascension" is the only installment in the series to feature multiplayer, which is online-only for both competitive and cooperative play. Up to eight players on two teams of two to four players (or a four to eight player deathmatch) battle for control of a map in order to earn rewards from the gods. Players can also fight each other in one-on-one matches. Players must sell their champion's soul to either Zeus, Hades, Ares, or Poseidon, which allows players to try different weapons, armor sets, and powers inspired by the god of their choice, and extras can be unlocked.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: After the success of their first game "Kinetica" (2001), Santa Monica Studio began development of the original "God of War" in 2002, and unveiled it two years later at SCEA Santa Monica Gamers' Day 2004. Game director and creator David Jaffe said that although the idea for "God of War" was his own, the concept owed a debt to Capcom because he had played "Onimusha" and said "let's do that with Greek mythology". He was inspired in part by the 1981 feature film, "Clash of the Titans", saying, "the real high concept for me was ... merging it with "Heavy Metal" magazine". He said he liked both "the kids stuff ... with Greek mythology" and the idea of adding more adult themes such as sex and violence. He was also inspired by the 1981 film "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Although the game is based on Greek mythology, the development team gave themselves "lots of freedom" to modify the myths, and Jaffe said they took the "coolest aspects of the subject" and created art and story using those elements. Director of visual development and lead concept artist, Charlie Wen, drew inspiration from these films as well as more contemporary films such as "Gladiator" (2000) for tonal inspiration to lead the visual design of Kratos, other characters, and the world of "God of War".<ref name="IGN6/10/04"></ref> The gameplay of the "Strider" arcade franchise was also a vital influence on "God of War", and the developers described the gameplay "as merging the action of "Devil May Cry" with the puzzle-solving of "Ico"" and noted that players would be able to "sunder enemies with a single move, such as by ripping them in half". The game uses Santa Monica's Kinetica engine, which they developed for "Kinetica".


title: God of War (franchise)

text: A sequel to "God of War" was first teased at the end of its credits, which stated, "Kratos Will Return". "God of War II" was officially announced at the 2006 Game Developers Conference (GDC). David Jaffe stepped down and became the creative director of its sequel and "God of War"s lead animator Cory Barlog assumed the role of game director. Barlog said that in the game, players would see "a larger view of Kratos' role within the mythological world." Like "God of War", the game uses Santa Monica's Kinetica engine. Magic attacks became an integral part of the combat system and it was more refined. New creatures and heroes from the mythology, and more boss battles were added. Both Jaffe and Barlog said that they did not view "God of War II" as a sequel, but rather a continuation of the previous game. Jaffe said that they did not want to include the Roman numeral number two (II) in the title for this reason, but they did not want the title to convey the impression it was an expansion pack. Both Jaffe and Barlog said that the reason "God of War II" appeared on the PlayStation 2 instead of the PlayStation 3—which was released four months prior to "God of War II"—was because "there's a 100 million people out there that will be able to play "God of War II" as soon as it launches." Barlog assured that the game would be playable on the newer platform, which originally had PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility.<ref name="PALGN7/26/06"></ref><ref name="Spike5/5/06"></ref>


title: God of War (franchise)

text: "God of War III" was first mentioned by Cory Barlog at a "God of War II" launch event, and it was officially announced at the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). After serving as game director during the first eight months of development, Barlog left Santa Monica for other opportunities and Stig Asmussen took on the role, having previously been the lead environment artist and art director on "God of War" and "God of War II", respectively. Asmussen said that one of the greatest challenges in developing "God of War III" for the PlayStation 3 was the "complexity of everything"; individual tasks, such as designing Helios' decapitation, could take a year because the "level of detail [that was] expected [was] so high and intricate, it [crossed] multiple departments." He said that the PlayStation 3's hardware capabilities allowed more flexibility in character creation and interaction with the environment.<ref name="IGN12/8/09"></ref><ref name="GamePro11/4/09"></ref> The engine for "God of War III" was ported from the first two installments to the PlayStation 3. As the game was being developed, the code department swapped out PlayStation 2 components with PlayStation 3 components. They replaced the renderer, the particle system, and the collision system. Although they were re-using the engine from "God of War II", the core engine for "God of War III" was brand new. Between E3 2009 and the time the game shipped, morphological anti-aliasing (MLAA) was added, which graphics engineer Ben Diamand said "improved edges dramatically and saved substantial amounts of frame-rate." Diamand also said that "depth-of-field, motion blur, crepuscular 'God' rays and refraction were either added or improved in quality and speed" during that same time period.<ref name="Euro5/4/13"></ref>


title: God of War (franchise)

text: On April 12, 2012, Sony released a teaser image for "Ascension" on its official PlayStation Facebook page, which was followed by the game's announcement on April 19 on PlayStation.Blog. Todd Papy, who had previously worked as a designer on "God of War" and "God of War II" and as design director on "God of War III", assumed the role of game director; "God of War III" director Stig Asmussen was busy with another project at Santa Monica and did not work on "Ascension". The announcement officially confirmed the game's title and Papy said it was not titled "God of War IV" to avoid confusion because it is a prequel, rather than a sequel, to the trilogy.<ref name="4/30"></ref> The game features a retooled "God of War III" engine, enabling online multiplayer battles for up to eight players. The decision to add multiplayer came about from curiosity, according to lead combat designer Jason McDonald. The multiplayer was first tested using Kratos, and McDonald said the testers had "a lot of fun". Seeing their reaction made the team feel that the multiplayer had value and they then began to put the ""God of War" spin on it".<ref name="PSBlog3/8/13"></ref> In the developmental transition from "God of War III" to "Ascension", one of the graphics engineers, Cedric Perthuis, noted that the limits of the "God of War III" engine restricted artist creativity, so they "tried to remove or push those limits as far as possible without losing any performance." "Ascension" did not have a graphical leap over its predecessor like "God of War III" did. Dynamic lighting was added, which allowed for development of the Life Cycle gameplay mechanic. Particle effects were also greatly improved upon from "God of War III".


title: God of War (franchise)

text: Santa Monica began work on the fifth main installment in 2014, which was confirmed by the returning Cory Barlog at the first annual PlayStation Experience on December 6 that year. The official announcement came at the 2016 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) with a gameplay demo, which also confirmed that Barlog had returned to the series as game director. The game was deliberately titled "God of War" with no numeral or subtitle because although it is a continuation of the series, "we [reimagined] everything." Other mythologies were also considered for the new setting, but Norse was picked to keep the focus on Kratos; there was also consideration to use a different protagonist, but it was decided to keep Kratos as he "is intrinsically tied" to the series. In adapting the Norse myths, Barlog said there were so many different translations and interpretations, and just like they did with Greek mythology in the previous games, they found ways to parallel path things from the myths to fit their story. Most of the development team that worked on the original "God of War" worked on the new installment. They claimed that they matched the new gameplay with the same level of accessibility as the previous installments. Some gameplay characteristics found in the previous installments were cut, such as jumping, swimming, and instant-death platforming challenges; these were cut due to the camera being closer to Kratos. Although "Ascension" had introduced multiplayer to the series, the team dropped the mode to focus on the single-player experience. The Leviathan Axe was chosen as Kratos' new main weapon because the developers wanted a more grounded direction for the game. Although the game never reaches this number, the enemy count was increased to be able to support up to 100 enemies on-screen; "God of War III" and "Ascension" could do up to 50. Although the game was built for the standard PlayStation 4, Barlog confirmed that it would "benefit from the power" of the PlayStation 4 Pro; an updated version of the PlayStation 4 that can render games in 4K resolution and was released a few months after "God of War" was announced. The game's story was estimated to take 25–35 hours to complete, which is significantly more than the previous four main installments, which each took an average of 10 hours to complete. As part of Sony's larger efforts to port their first-party exclusive games to Windows, Santa Monica Studio announced in October 2021 that "God of War" would be released for Windows on January 14, 2022, with support for graphics options. This in turn marked the first main entry in the series to release on a non-PlayStation platform.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: Following the announcement of the 2018 installment in June 2016, Cory Barlog confirmed that the 2018 game would not be Kratos' last. The ending of the 2018 installment also teased a sequel; it ended with Ragnarök looming, as well as a secret ending that showed a vision of the Æsir god Thor confronting Kratos and Atreus at the end of Fimbulwinter. During the 2020 PlayStation 5 (PS5) Showcase event on September 16, a new "God of War" was officially announced for a 2021 release on the newer console. When the game was first announced, it was only announced as a PS5 title; however, in June 2021, it was confirmed that the game would release on both the PS4 and PS5, marking the first cross-gen release in the series. Development was partly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the game being delayed to 2022. In September 2021, the game's title was confirmed as "God of War Ragnarök". During the 2021 PlayStation Showcase event, Eric Williams, who worked on every previous installment, was confirmed as the game's director, continuing the previous era's tradition of having a different director for each game; Barlog served as a producer on "Ragnarök". It was also during this event that it was confirmed that "Ragnarök" would be the finale to the Norse era of the series. The main reason Santa Monica decided to end the Norse era with "Ragnarök" was due to the game's size and scale. The 2018 installment and "Ragnarök" each respectively took five years to develop, and they did not want to take another five years, totaling 15 years, to tell one story. The game supports options for players to run the game in either higher resolution or better performance, including 4K at 30 frames per second (fps), 1080p resolution at 60fps, a high frame resolution mode in 4K at 40fps, and a high frame performance mode that syncs to 120 hertz. The latter two high frame options are only available for the PS5 version of the game and require monitors with HDMI 2.1. Due to the game also being on PS4, it does not fully utilize the capabilities of the PS5. The PS4 version is a visual improvement over the 2018 installment while the PS5 version "is essentially an enhancement of what's already possible [on the PS4]". The game does, however, include several features exclusive to the PS5 hardware, such as 3D audio, haptic feedback, higher frame rate, and overall better graphics.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: Prior to the release of the 2018 installment, Cory Barlog confirmed that after the Norse era, future games could see the series tackling either Egyptian or Maya mythology. He also said that although the 2018 installment (and subsequently "Ragnarök") focused on Norse, it alluded to the fact that there are other mythologies co-existing in the world. Barlog also said that he liked the idea of having different directors for each game and although he may not direct another "God of War", he would still be at Santa Monica to work on future games.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: Game developer Ready at Dawn pitched the idea of a "God of War" game for the PlayStation Portable to Santa Monica Studio soon after the original "God of War" launched. Cory Barlog officially confirmed the development of "Chains of Olympus" at a "God of War II" launch event, stating "It is its own story that connects to the overall story." "Chains of Olympus" uses a proprietary, in-house engine referred to as the Ready at Dawn engine, which expanded on the engine created for their previous game, "Daxter" (2006). Originally designed for the PlayStation Portable's restricted 222-megahertz (MHz) processor, Ready at Dawn convinced Sony to increase the clock speed of the PSP to 333-MHz, which they did in a firmware upgrade. The faster processor allowed for more realistic blood effects, lighting effects, and shadows as well as improved enemy intelligence, but noticeably decreased battery life. After the game's completion, game director Ru Weerasuriya stated multiplayer options and other puzzles, characters, and dialogue had to be removed due to time constraints.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: "Ghost of Sparta" was announced on May 4, 2010, on PlayStation.Blog. According to Sony, Ready at Dawn utilized "state-of-the-art visual technologies" that allowed "higher quality environments and characters." "Ghost of Sparta" offers "over 25% more gameplay" than "Chains of Olympus", while adding more enemies on screen and more boss encounters. Development of "Ghost of Sparta" took 23 months to complete. Due to Weerasuriya's schedule at Ready at Dawn, he could not return to direct; Dana Jan, the lead level designer for "Chains of Olympus", became director for "Ghost of Sparta". At Comic-Con 2010, Jan noted that when development began in 2008, the goal was to make the game bigger than "Chains of Olympus", which had apparently pushed the PSP to its functional limits. Jan stated that "Ghost of Sparta" took the PSP to its "absolute capacity", with another feature being more on-screen foes. The game concept was originally used as a teaser for players who obtained the platinum trophy from "God of War III". The trophy revealed a site called spartansstandtall.com, which became the official site for "Ghost of Sparta" on May 4. Jan stated the reason they chose to have the game take place between "God of War" and "God of War II" was because "It seemed to make a lot of sense to fill in that void."


title: God of War (franchise)

text: "Betrayal" was announced by Sony Online Entertainment at a press conference in Los Angeles in May 2007. The game utilizes a total of 110 different animations and features a 2D rendition of the series' three-dimensional (3D) graphics. Game director Phil Cohen said that although the game was enjoyable to develop, the greatest challenge was creating a single tileset and palette swapping scheme that was diverse enough to portray multiple environments with only several hundred kilobytes, and that met Santa Monica Studio's high standards. Cohen wrote the initial design document between September and October 2005, and revisited it in August 2006, the month development started. The versions for high-end handsets were completed in April 2007, with final versions for low-end handsets completed by June 2007. The porting team adapted the game to over 200 handsets in a matter of weeks. Both David Jaffe and Cory Barlog ensured that the "Betrayal" development team captured the feel of the combat and visual style, and were "helpful with feedback and positive support".


title: God of War (franchise)

text: A film adaptation of the first game was announced in 2005. Creator David Jaffe confirmed that a completed script had been written by David Self and would be sent to an unspecified director. He said that Universal Studios was behind the making of the "God of War" movie, but was unaware of its status, and eventually said, "it's doubtful that the film will even be made." In September 2010, Jaffe said that the "script went out a year and a half ago to Daniel Craig who plays [James] Bond, but he turned it down." He also said that another actor had since been cast as Kratos; he said, "this new person is pretty good, if that ends up true." In July 2012, "The Hollywood Reporter" said that writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan had been hired to adapt the "God of War" film. The writers told IGN that they intended to "humanize" Kratos and explore his past. Melton said that they were emotionally invested and it could become a series of films, and that Ares "[would] become a more proactive villain." A script had been "turned in" and the film had a budget of US$150 million. Following the release of 2018's "God of War", with no updates on the original game's film, rumors about a potential adaptation of the 2018 game began circulating. ""s (2018) director Steven S. DeKnight stated he would like to direct an adaptation of that game and talked with Sony about making it R-rated. In May 2021, however, a Sony spokesperson confirmed that there was no "God of War" film adaptation in development.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: On March 7, 2022, "Deadline" reported that a live action television (TV) series was said to be in negotiations at Amazon Prime Video by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, creators of "The Expanse", and Rafe Judkins, the showrunner for "The Wheel of Time". During an investor briefing on May 26, 2022, Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan confirmed that a "God of War" TV series was in development for Amazon Prime Video. The TV series was officially ordered on December 14, 2022. The adaptation is being produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios in association with PlayStation Productions, and it will premiere on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. It is being written by Fergus and Ostby, with Judkins serving as showrunner, who will all also be executive producers. Other executive producers include Santa Monica Studio's Creative Director Cory Barlog, PlayStation Productions' Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan, Santa Monica Studio's Yumi Yang, and Vertigo Entertainment's Roy Lee. Santa Monica Studio's Jeff Ketcham will serve as a co-executive producer. It was also confirmed that the Prime Video series would adapt the Norse era, beginning with the events of the 2018 installment.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: "God of War: Unearthing the Legend" (75 minutes, 2010) is a documentary about the "God of War" franchise and is hosted by Peter Weller. The production discusses the relationship between the "God of War" games and Greek mythology, and features members of the "God of War III" development team and professional historians. It was included as part of the "God of War III Ultimate Edition" (North America) and "Ultimate Trilogy Edition" (Europe, Australia, and New Zealand) packages. On March 25, 2010, it was released on the PlayStation Store in North America to purchase.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: "God of War – Game Directors Live" (80 minutes, 2010) is a documentary featuring five game directors of the "God of War" series: David Jaffe (original "God of War"), Cory Barlog (just "God of War II" at the time), Ru Weerasuriya ("Chains of Olympus"), Stig Asmussen ("God of War III"), and Dana Jan ("Ghost of Sparta"). The documentary takes the form of an interview panel hosted by G4's Alison Haislip, with the five game directors, 150 members of PlayStation.Blog, and members of "GodofWar.com" and "SpartansStandTall.com". It was filmed at the El Portal theater in Los Angeles on September 1, 2010, and was released as a pre-order bonus for "Ghost of Sparta" in North America on November 2, 2010, and was included with the "Origins Collection" and later released on the PlayStation Store.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: "Raising Kratos" is a YouTube documentary of Santa Monica Studio's five-year process in making 2018's "God of War", showing the "herculean effort" that went into reviving the franchise. The documentary was announced on April 20, 2019, the one year anniversary of the game's launch, and was released the following month on May 10.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: A six-issue comic book series titled "God of War", written by Marv Wolfman with art by Andrea Sorrentino, was published by WildStorm and DC Comics on a bi-monthly schedule from March 2010 to January 2011. Taking place during the Greek era, the narrative switches between Kratos' past and present; it occurs while he is a soldier of Sparta and involves his search for the Ambrosia of Asclepius, which has legendary healing properties and eventually saved his plague-ridden daughter, Calliope. Kratos also embarks upon a quest to destroy the same elixir to deny it to the worshippers of the slain god Ares, who wish to resurrect him.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: In the lead up to "Ascension"s release, Santa Monica released a graphic novel titled "" on the "God of War" website that featured a social experience from October 2012 until March 2013. The graphic novel was a prequel story that tied into the single-player of "Ascension", and was the backstory of the player's multiplayer character.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: A two-volume comic series was published by Dark Horse Comics and follows Kratos' journey between the events of "God of War III" and the 2018 installment. It was written by Chris Roberson with art by Tony Parker. The first volume, also titled "God of War", was published monthly from November 2018 to February 2019; Issue #0 was included digitally with the three different special editions of the game. The four-issue volume serves as a direct prequel story to the 2018 game. The second volume, also four issues and subtitled "Fallen God", was published monthly from March to June 2021; it was originally to begin publication in June 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Fallen God" is a prequel to Volume 1 and covers the timespan from "God of War III" to Volume 1.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: The "God of War" novels recount the events of the games and offer deeper insights into their stories. "God of War", the official novelization of the first game, was written by Matthew Stover and Robert E. Vardeman. It was published on May 25, 2010, by Del Rey Books. "God of War II", the second novelization of the series, was written by Vardeman alone and was published by Del Rey Books on February 12, 2013. The third novelization in the series, titled "God of War – The Official Novelization", is of 2018's "God of War". It was released on August 28, 2018, by Titan Books and was written by Cory Barlog's father, James Barlog.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: Seven "God of War" soundtracks have been commercially released and have featured several composers, including Gerard K. Marino, Ron Fish, Winifred Phillips, Mike Reagan, Cris Velasco, Winnie Waldron, Marcello De Francisci, Jeff Rona, Tyler Bates, and Bear McCreary. On March 1, 2005, "God of War: Original Soundtrack from the Video Game" was released on CD by SIE as an exclusive product for the Sony Connect Music Store. It was praised for its well-developed orchestral themes, and the creative use of ancient and ethnic instrumentation. The composers were also praised for avoiding the production of never-ending action themes. "God of War II: Original Soundtrack from the Video Game" was released on CD by SIE on April 10, 2007. Praised as strong, the album features ominous orchestral pieces, and each composer's contributions are slightly more distinctive than the previous soundtrack. "God of War III: Original Soundtrack from the Video Game" was released on CD by SIE and Sumthing Else on March 30, 2010. It was also included as downloadable content in the "God of War III Ultimate Edition" and "Ultimate Trilogy Edition" collections. The soundtrack was praised as an orchestral success and the best score in the series at the time.


title: God of War (franchise)

text: The original scores for "God of War", "God of War II", and "God of War III" were nominated for Best Original Score at the 2005, 2007, and 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, respectively. The "God of War Trilogy Soundtrack" was included with the "God of War III Ultimate Edition" and "Ultimate Trilogy Edition" collections as downloadable content. The "Trilogy Soundtrack" consists of the original scores for "God of War", "God of War II", and "God of War III". It was praised by critics as the best way to experience the series' musical development, and allows the listener to note the development of the composers during the series.