It shows the evolving monster designs throughout the game’s development process which includes commentary from the game’s visual development team at Sony Santa Monica.

The book also shows some of the characters and creatures which didn’t make the final cut.

If you head on over through the link, you can read up on the Chimera, Argus, Hades, the Centaur General and Female Centaur, Cerberus, the Satyr and Poseidon Tentacles.

The Art of God of War III is available from Ballistic Publishing in three different formats: Paper Back – $65, Special Edition – $129, and Limited Folio Edition – $300.

Check out screens pulled from the PS Blog below.

GayGamer reports God of War III, Heavy Rain, ModNation Racers, UFC Undisputed 2010, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – Game of the Year Edition have all won the Greatest Hits label.

These games will now go for $29.99, down from the usual $60.

Uncharted 2 is the only title in this batch available as a Platinum release, the PAL territory equivalent.

Sony also recently announced a stack of new Greatest Hits and Favourites titles for PSP.

AIAS has announced the nominees for this year’s Interactive Achievement Awards, with Rockstar western Red Dead Redemption leading the way with nine nods.

Ninja Theory’s Enslaved and Sony’s God of War III also get a handful of nominations.

RDR, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mass Effect 2, Angry Birds HD for iPad and GoW III are all up for the Game of the Year nomination.

As announced before Christmas, BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will be awarded the Lifetime Achievement award.

Full list is below, via GameSpot.

The IAAs take place during the DICE summit on February 10.

Game of the Year
Angry Birds HD–Chillingo–Rovio
Call of Duty: Black Ops–Activision–Treyarch
God of War III–SCEA–SCE Santa Monica Studio
Mass Effect 2–Electronic Arts–Bioware
Red Dead Redemption–Rockstar Games–Rockstar San Diego

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood–Ubisoft–Ubisoft Montreal
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West–Namco Bandai–Ninja Theory
Limbo–Playdead–Playdead
Mass Effect 2–Electronic Arts–Bioware
Red Dead Redemption–Rockstar Games–Rockstar San Diego

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood–Ubisoft–Ubisoft Montreal
Battlefield: Bad Company 2–Electronic Arts–Digital Illusions CE
Limbo–Playdead–Playdead
Medal of Honor–Electronic Arts–Danger Close/Digital Illusions CE
Red Dead Redemption–Rockstar Games–Rockstar San Diego

Social Networking Game of the Year
CityVille–Zynga–Zynga
Family Feud–iWin/Backstage Technologies–iWin/Backstage Technologies
FrontierVille–Zynga–Zynga
Nightclub City–Booyah–Booyah
Ravenwood Fair–Lolapps–Lolapps

Adventure Game of the Year
Alan Wake–Microsoft Game Studios–Remedy Entertainment
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood–Ubisoft–Ubisoft Montreal
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West–Namco Bandai–Ninja Theory
Heavy Rain–SCEA–Quantic Dream
Limbo–Playdead–Playdead

Sports Game of the Year
FIFA Soccer 11–Electronic Arts–EA Canada
MLB 10: The Show–SCEA–SCE San Diego
NBA 2K11–2K Sports–Visual Concepts
NHL 11–Electronic Arts–EA Canada

Racing Game of the Year
Gran Turismo 5–SCEA–Polyphony Digital
ModNation Racers–SCEA–United Front Games/SCE San Diego
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit–Electronic Arts–Criterion
Split/Second–Disney Interactive Studios–Black Rock Studio

Fighting Game of the Year
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift–Aksys Games–Arc System Works
EA Sports MMA–Electronic Arts–EA Tiburon
Super Street Fighter IV–Capcom–Capcom/Dimps
UFC 2010 Undisputed–THQ–Yuke’s Co.

Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood–Ubisoft–Ubisoft Montreal
Battlefield: Bad Company 2–Electronic Arts–Digital Illusions CE
Call of Duty: Black Ops–Activision–Treyarch
Halo: Reach–Microsoft Game Studios–Bungie
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty–Blizzard Entertainment–Blizzard Entertainment

Action Game of the Year
Battlefield: Bad Company 2–Electronic Arts–Digital Illusions CE
Call of Duty: Black Ops–Activision–Treyarch
God of War III–SCEA–SCE Santa Monica Studio
Halo: Reach=–Microsoft Game Studios–Bungie
Red Dead Redemption–Rockstar Games–Rockstar San Diego

Portable Game of the Year
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies–Nintendo–Square Enix
God of War: Ghost of Sparta–SCEA–SCE Santa Monica Studio/Ready at Dawn
Infinity Blade–Epic Games–Chair Entertainment
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future–Nintendo–Level-5
Valkyria Chronicles II–Sega–Sega

Casual Game of the Year
Angry Birds HD–Chillingo–Rovio
Bejeweled 3–PopCap Games–PopCap Games
Kinect Sports–Microsoft Game Studios–Rare
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX–Namco Bandai–Namco Bandai
Plants vs. Zombies–PopCap Games–PopCap Games

Family Game of the Year
Dance Central–Microsoft Game Studios/MTV Games–Harmonix Music Systems
Kirby’s Epic Yarn–Nintendo–Good-Feel/HAL Laboratory
Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4–Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment–Traveller’s Tales
Rock Band 3 MTV Games Harmonix Music Systems
SingStar Dance–SCEA–SCE London Studio

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising–THQ–Relic Entertainment
Sid Meier’s Civilization V–2K Games–Firaxis
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty–Blizzard Entertainment–Blizzard Entertainment
Supreme Commander 2–Square Enix–Gas Powered Games
Toy Soldiers–Microsoft Game Studios–Signal Studios

Outstanding Achievement in Animation
Call of Duty: Black Ops–Activision–Treyarch
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West–Namco Bandai–Ninja Theory
God of War III–SCEA–SCE Santa Monica Studio
Red Dead Redemption–Rockstar Games–Rockstar San Diego
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction–Ubisoft–Ubisoft Montreal

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
Alan Wake–Microsoft Game Studios–Remedy Entertainment
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West–Namco Bandai–Ninja Theory
God of War III–SCEA–SCE Santa Monica Studio
Kirby’s Epic Yarn–Nintendo–Good-Feel/HAL Laboratory
Red Dead Redemption–Rockstar Games–Rockstar San Diego

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering
Call of Duty: Black Ops–Activision–Treyarch
God of War III–SCEA–SCE Santa Monica Studio
Heavy Rain–SCEA–Quantic Dream
Medal of Honor–Electronic Arts–Danger Close/Digital Illusions CE
Metro 2033–THQ–4A Games

Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering
Dance Central–Microsoft Game Studios/MTV Games–Harmonix Music Systems
Kirby’s Epic Yarn–Nintendo–Good-Feel/HAL Laboratory
Red Dead Redemption–Rockstar Games–Rockstar San Diego
Super Mario Galaxy 2–Nintendo–Nintendo
Super Scribblenauts–Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment–5th Cell

Outstanding Character Performance
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West – Monkey–Namco Bandai–Ninja Theory
God of War III – Kratos–SCEA–SCE Santa Monica Studio
Mass Effect 2 – Male Shepard–Electronic Arts–Bioware
Red Dead Redemption – John Marston–Rockstar Games–Rockstar San Diego
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty – Tychus Findlay–Blizzard Entertainment–Blizzard Entertainment

Outstanding Achievement in Story
Alan Wake–Microsoft Game Studios–Remedy Entertainment
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West–Namco Bandai–Ninja Theory
Heavy Rain–SCEA–Quantic Dream
Mass Effect 2–Electronic Arts–Bioware
Metro 2033–THQ–4A Games

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies–Nintendo–Square Enix
Fable III–Microsoft Game Studios–Lionhead Studios
Fallout: New Vegas–Bethesda Softworks–Obsidian Entertainment
Mass Effect 2–Electronic Arts–Bioware
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm–Blizzard Entertainment–Blizzard Entertainment

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
Angry Birds HD–Chillingo–Rovio
Dance Central–Microsoft Game Studios/MTV Games–Harmonix Music Systems
Heavy Rain–SCEA–Quantic Dream
Limbo–Playdead–Playdead
Red Dead Redemption–Rockstar Games–Rockstar San Diego

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood–Ubisoft–Ubisoft Montreal
Fable III–Microsoft Game Studios–Lionhead Studios
Heavy Rain–SCEA–Quantic Dream
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty–Blizzard Entertainment–Blizzard Entertainment
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm–Blizzard Entertainment–Blizzard Entertainment

Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack
Dance Central–Microsoft Game Studios/MTV Games–Harmonix Music Systems
DJ Hero 2–Activision–FreeStyleGames
Gran Turismo 5–SCEA–Polyphony Digital
Rock Band 3–MTV Games–Harmonix Music Systems

The rumours of Kratos appearing in the new Mortal Kombat were confirmed at the VGAs last night, with a new trailer showing all.

It had previously been suggested that Kratos was to appear in the next title in the fight series, along with his own God of War-themed arena, combat moves and his own fatalities.

Obviously, Kratos is exclusive to the PS3 version.

Mortal Kombat releases next year.

Catch all of our coverage from last night’s VGAs here.

Red Dead Redemption scooped the Game of the Year award at this year’s VGA’s, pipping Mass Effect 2, which still managed to scoop two awards of its own, including best RPG and best Xbox 360 game.

Elsewhere in the awards, Kratos managed to scoop two awards for seperate games, with God of War III winning Best PS3 Game and Ghost of Sparta winning the award for Best Handheld game.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood wasn’t left out, winning the award for Best Action-Adventure game, while Halo Reach managed to snatch the award for Best Multiplayer game from under the nose of Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Check out the full list of winners below.

Studio of the Year

• BioWare

Best Wii Game

• Super Mario Galaxy 2

Best Xbox 360 Game

• Mass Effect 2

Best PS3 Game

• God of War III

Best PC Game

• StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

Best Handheld Game

• God of War: Ghost of Sparta

Best Shooter

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 

Best Action-Adventure Game

• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood 

Best RPG

• Mass Effect 2

Best Multiplayer Game

• Halo: Reach

Best Individual Sports Game

• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 

Best Team Sports Game

• NBA 2K11

Best Driving Game

• Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 

Best Music Game

• Rock Band 3

Best Soundtrack

• DJ Hero 2

Best Song in a Game

• Far Away by José González 

Best Original Score

• Red Dead Redemption

Best Graphics

• God of War III 

Best Adapted Video Game

• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

Best Performance by a Human Male

• Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker/Amazing Spider-Man 

Best Performance by a Human Female

• Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan 

Best Downloadable Game

• Costume Quest

Best DLC

• Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare

Best Independent Game

• Limbo

Most Anticipated Game

• Portal 2

Game of the Year

• Red Dead Redemption

You can catch all our coverage of the VGA’s, which includes reveals for a new SSX, Mass Effect 3 and more here.

Final Fantasy XIII won big at last night’s PlayStation Awards, getting the Platinum award.

The Square RPG was the only PS3 game that walked away with the prize at last night’s ceremony. The award is only given if a title has shipped 1 million units in Japan.

Not just that, the title was in the user choice category as one of the best games of the year alongside Modern Warfare 2, God of War III, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Yakuza 4.

Find the full list of winners at Siliconera.

Are you American? Do you have a PS3, PSP or both? Do you suddenly find yourself with a massive hard-on for all things Kratos? It’s going to be your lucky day, son.

The US end of the PS Store update last night, with this week’s update focused on God of War.

The God of War Collection is now available to buy from the store, with God of War I and II also available to buy separately if you’re a PS Plus member.

Full bundle will set you back $29.99, while each game will cost $14.99. There’s also full game trials for each lasting up to an hour.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta is now also available on PSP for $39.99 if you’re up for it.

There’s also some God of War III tat to get, from playable skins in the game to some Home stuff.

GO CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY!

Outside of God of War, there’s also a Rock Band 3 demo, DLC for Super Street Fighter IV and DJ Hero 2 and more.

Get the full list at the US PS Blog.

Guerilla Games head Hermen Hulst has told VG247 that he “needs” Killzone 3 to beyond the PS3 tech benchmarks set by first-party games since the release of Killzone 2 last February – including Uncharted 2 and God of War III.

In an interview with us at the shooter’s formal reveal in Holland earlier this month, he did say, however, the race to win on a technical level is seen as “a little game” between his studio, Naughty Dog and Sony Santa Monica.

“We need to, right?” said Hulst when asked if Killzone 3 would jump ahead of both UC2 and GoW III.

“That’s what we do. We talk to those guys a lot, both the Santa Monica team and the guys at Naughty Dog, and that’s the little game between us as friends of the studios.

“Yes, we do that, but then again they’re working on their next games and they’re going to have to do better again. So absolutely: we need to do that.”

It’s thought that the Uncharted developer is working alongside Guerilla in some form with Killzone 3, although how is unknown.

Get our full interview with Hermen Hulst here. Killzone 3 releases next year for PS3.

Nintendo’s claimed leading software sales positions in both the US and Europe so far this year with New Super Mario Bros Wii and Wii Fit respectively, with FFXIII and God of War III mounted the most serious challenges from other platforms.

The company has given an estimated top 30 in both the US and Europe for the year to date, as part of its full-year release last week. You can find the slides below.

Final Fantasy XIII has made the biggest sales on a non-Nintendo platform this year in Europe, clocking a fourth place for PS3. God of War III has taken third in the US so far, again for PS3.

The top 360 title on both lists is Modern Warfare 2, at sixth and fourth in Europe and the US respectively.

Knock yourself out with more slides here.

God of War III dev boss Stig Asmussen has told GamePro some pretty major bananas to do with the ongoing story in the series. Warning: spoilers.

Check this out.

“What David Jaffe talked about doing was – and I’m not sure how it would happen – basically, you destroy Greek mythology and then Norse mythology is right around the corner,” Asmussen told the site.

“That’s the next thing that Kratos would go after. It becomes clear at the end that he’s going to become this harbinger of death across different mythologies in the world and maybe carry the series on from there.”

Jaffe then dropped the following on Twitter, as reported by Kotaku. “I assure you my story was not as simple as Kratos going after the Norse gods. There is an element of truth but it goes far beyond,” he tweeted.

He also said: “I love Cory, he rocks. But that was my idea. Blades of Chaos becomes the Scythe of the Reaper. BUT still, lots more. Up2Sony2reveal.”

Bonkers. Thanks, Eurogamer.

Kratos’ genocide of the Greek pantheon may have come to its debatably satisfying conclusion, but his franchise is far from six feet under. If you’d like proof, check out God of War bonus site “Spartans Stand Tall.”

See that guy there? About thiiis tall? Wearing a toga? Yeah, he’s new.

For those in need of a refresher, Spartans Stand Tall has been keeping track of how many players have hacked and slashed their way to a Platinum Trophy in God of War III without succumbing to frustration and going on a murderous rampage of their own.

Right now, the site’s meter is 3/4 full. It’s assumed, then, that Sony Santa Monica plans on revealing something suitably epic once players top off the meter. Our best guess? DLC. But maybe not, since the game’s apparently locked up so tight that cracking it open is actually the plot of the next Ocean’s movie.

Unless everyone in the world stops playing God of War III right this second, though, we should find out what Sony Santa Monica’s got cooking soon enough. In the meantime, though, speculate away!

Thanks, Joystiq.

SCEA’s senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold has said that despite recent shortages for PS3 in the US, demand for the console “remains incredibly high”.

Speaking in the company’s NPD response, however, Seybold said supply would still be running “tight” within “the next few months”.

“It’s no surprise, consumer demand remains incredibly high,” he said, “and PS3 supply will continue to be tight across our retail channels in the next few months.

Back at GDC last month, Seybold told VG247′s Stephany Nunneley that PS3 shortages would last “a bit longer”.

Seybold was also more than keen to point out its successes for the month of March, including 1.1 million copies of God of War III sold in the US alone.

“The huge appetite for PS3 content and gaming experiences has never been stronger as we continue to bring out great games like God of War III which was the #1 software sku in March with more than 1.1 million units sold in less than 3 weeks.”

The release of Final Fantasy XIII last month also has Sony celebrating, as the PS3 version sold nearly double of the Xbox 360 version.

PS3 sold 313k for the month of March, while PSP and PS2 sold 119k and 118k respectively.

NPD’s Anita Frazier revealed her industry analysis for March 2010 that God of War III has bested the launch of it’s predecessor, God of War II, by 32 percent.

Revealed this evening in an industry note, God of War III sold over 1.1M units for the month, coming in at the top of the software charts.

It has been estimated that worldwide lifetime units moved for God of War II sit at around 3.58M.

If accurate, it looks like God of War III is on track to catch up with its sibling.

Kratos’ latest adventure hit the US on March 16.

Stig Asmussen has revealed to D’toid that as far as DLC with God of War III’s concerned, there is really not much the team at Santa Monica could do in terms of content since the game’s “zipped up so tight”.

That’s not to say that an epilogue to the game could not be released though, but at this point skins and challenges are about all that Asmussen thinks could be done.

“Maybe we could do the epilogue that I’m talking about,” he said. “The full epilogue, just something fun to do. There’s skins and there’s challenges, we could do those things.

“The problem with this game is that it’s so tight, it’s zipped up so tight, and it’s designed to work one way. We couldn’t just put in new AI characters or something like that without breaking the whole thing.”

During the God of War III event at GDC last month, design director Todd Papy told VG247 that while DLC was “a possibility”.

“We’re gonna look and see how we can support God of War III,” Papy told us, “and we’ve got some ideas that we are already looking into and working on, but we’ll see if it ever comes to market”.

More through the links.

SCEA VP of marketing Peter Dille has revealed that God of War III has sold over 1 million units in “just a couple days”.

But speaking at the MI6 conference yesterday, Dille did not specifically say if the numbers for the Sony Santa Monica epic were for the US or worldwide.

The numbers for the US will definitely be known by this time next week, regardless: NPD will release its official figures for March next Thursday.

Thanks, IGN.

What is reportedly a scan of the French Official PlayStation Magazine has popped up over on the GameTrailers forum, supposedly showing multiplayer DLC for God of War III.

The scan claims that the DLC will contain a mini-fighting game for more than just one player.

It’s very blurry, we can’t read French well enough, and there is a strange keyboard thing above it, so we will ask Sony about this before going any further.

The game’s design director, Todd Papy, told us at GDC that DLC for Kratos’ latest adventure was a “possibility”, but would not go into further detail – only saying that Sony Santa Monica had “some ideas” it was looking into.

Take it for what it is – a massive effing rumor – until we find out more, we reckon.

Via CVG.

God of War III is epic. No doubt about that. But it’s “fluff” too, according to the developer of WiiWare title Cave Story.

Tyrone Rodriguez, speaking in an interview with GoNintendo, said on the state of triple A games: “If you’re talking disc games, we’re going to see more big budget games with less gameplay and more fluff — think God of War III.

“We’re also going to see a lot more free-to-play with in-game transactions. It’s like the middle-ground for games is going away – it’s either really expensive or really quick and cheap.”

God of War III released last week for PlayStation 3. Get the first 15 minutes here. Cave Story, meanwhile, is out now on WiiWare.

Via D’Toid.

Kratos has slayed the beast that is Final Fantasy XIII and taken God of War III to number one in this week’s UK charts.

The Sony Santa Monica epic becomes the second number one this year for Sony after success with Heavy Rain – Killzone 2 give the firm its only number one last year.

It also outsold God of War II for PS2 by a ratio of 2:1.

FFXIII landed at three this week, although it still remains the fastest selling title in the UK this year. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 maintains its spot at two.

As for other new entries, Metro 2033 entered at five and Dragon Age: Origins expansion Awakening missed the top ten at 11.

Top ten below. Last week’s data is here.

Mistwalker boss Hironobu Sakaguchi has said he thinks God of War III is a “good game”.

But there’s one thing about Kratos’s latest the Final Fantasy creator doesn’t like.

“A long opening movie,” tweeted Sakaguchi. “It’s nicely done, but you don’t need this. It’s movie-like, but you don’t need long openings in games.”

That said, he still thinks the actioner’s great, as said in a further tweet.

“Sorry, my English is poor. lol Now I’m playing GoW3 and write some comments. This is [a] good game.”

God of War III released last week in the US and UK. It releases this week in Japan.

Thanks, Andriasang.

God of War III released in the UK today after launching in the US and mainland Europe earlier this week. All you’ll find below the break is 15 minutes of direct-feed video from the start of the game. There’s no point in putting words: you’ll be looking at the most attractive action game ever developed.

Just. Buy. It.

Get a platinum for God of War III, and this happens.

A website is revealed to you when you unlock the trophy, known as “Spartans Stand Tall”. It shows some sort of compass and not much else.

What’s it for? Only God himself – and Sony Santa Monica – truly knows.

It does mention “God of War III” in the footer bar on our browser, so chances are it could be DLC for that.

God of War III finally releases in the UK  today after a release earlier this week in the US. You know what to do: no need for us to tell you.

Steve Caterson, senior producer at Sony Santa Monica, has told Gamasutra that the violence in God of War III was all part of Kratos’character and the storyline, and had nothing to do with being sensationalist or controversial just for the sake of it.

“The violence question is something we always take very seriously, and we recognize the controversy involved in those works and decisions,” Caterson told the site.

“I think we tried very hard to follow one of our key guidelines that was set out when we were making God of War, and that was, ‘Don’t do anything that doesn’t fit the character’. Anything that relates to the character, as the situation evolves the character and pushes the character forward — those kinds of things you need to do and should not be shied away from.

“Don’t do anything just to be sensationalist. Don’t do anything just to be controversial. There should be a purpose and a reason for the actions and the depictions shown on-screen.

“That was the guideline that we set for ourselves and one that we tried very hard — and I think successfully — to follow in the first two products. The same thing applied for God of War III.”

When comparing the developmental prowess of PS3 compared to PS2, which the last iteration in the series was launched on, the team found that the “graphical fidelity” it was able to accomplish not only impressed the team but make it worry a bit as well.

“[We were like] ‘Hey, look! We can split a centaur from stem to stern and still have insides falling out!’”, Caterson reminisced. “And it was like, ‘Whoa, we can actually do that?’ And then the question was, obviously, ‘Should we do that?’

“It definitely heightens the level of brutality, but after careful consideration and viewing it and experiencing it, it became obvious that Kratos is a very brutal guy, and what he does is very brutal. We want that to be a part of the experience, and there are a few things we actually pulled back on.

“There were conversations held at a variety of levels, [E3] confirmed for us that we were on the right track and we were doing what was right for the franchise and was right for the character.

“It also confirmed for many of the doubters internally that, ‘You know, they’ve got a handle on this. They’re pushing the limit, and they are going to the edge, but the games have always done that.’

“We’ve always tried to take it as far to the edge as we could.”

God of War III was released yesterday in North America, and lands in the UK this Friday.

Yesterday, it was reported by the LA Times that PS3 shortages could hinder sales of the game.

An article over on the L.A. Times suggests that shortages of PS3 consoles at retail could hamper God of War III sales.

According to the paper, recent visits to different Best Buy, GameStop and Target stores over in the West Hollywood area found each lacking the system, as it was sold out.

Apparently, Walmart and Amazon didn’t have any available online either.

“It’s not ideal, I won’t kid you,” Sony’s Jack Tretton said of the situation. “But I firmly believe we’ll get our hardware back in stock and keep selling God of War III for a long time.”

The previous two God of War games sold 8 million copies combined for PS2, and Sony is confident that the third installment will sell millions of copies as well, so it’s critical that Sony ship more PS3 consoles to retail as games move the most units within the first month of release.

Shortages are due to the price drop last year, along with the “it only does everything” marketing campaign – both of which helped the consoles beat out Wii for the first time in September 2009.

“We ultimately don’t make investments on a product-by-product or month-by-month basis, but rather we invest in our platform,” Tretton said, explaining Sonny’s marketing and support strategy.

“This game will pay off for us with the people who own a PlayStation 3 and the ones who will buy one in the future.”

SCEA’s communications boss, Patrick Seybold, told us earlier in the month that the shortages would last a bit longer, but Sony is doing everything it can to remedy the situation.

God of War III was released in North America today, and the UK gets it on Friday.

SCEA’s just put live a eye-popping God of War III launch trailer live. Get it after the break.

To say this trailer really is amazing is probably understatement of the year. You really need to watch it, it’s that good.

The consensus seems to be you need to buy it. This trailer, and these review scores, proves it.

The game releases today in the US, with a PAL release this week, beginning tomorrow in mainland Europe. UK and Ireland don’t get it until Friday.

God of War III director Stig Asmussen has revealed that a cut ending from the game may make it back in as free DLC.

Speaking to Kotaku, he admitted there’s some rough plans in place for DLC for the title.

“There was a pretty large thing that we chopped from the ending that I had regrets about, but then something we added at the end that helps make up for it a little bit, and helps make it more personal,” said Asmussen.

“We had titan encounters in the game, we had a pretty big one planed for the end and we got pretty far with it, but it was just one of those deals where we just had so much.

He further added: “As far as DLC goes, it might be something we might think about getting out there someday.”

That said, Asmussen has “no regrets” making the cut.

“Those things required so many resources and they’re so hard to work on. It was literally the hardest thing I’ve ever been involved with before in my life and we just couldn’t do more. We couldn’t.”

God of War III releases tomorrow in the US, with a UK release on Friday for PS3.

GoW III director Stig Asmussen reckons the game’s visuals are only half as good as they can be. Sheesh.

“Well, I think our studio will use this engine again,” he said, speaking to Destructoid at GDC this week, “and it’ll get better. And I think we’re probably about 50- or 60-percent at it right now. I think there’s a lot more we can do with it.”

Animations are an area that can be worked on, said the developer.

“I think individually our animations are incredible,” he said, “and our animators are incredibly talented. But I think we could make our system technically better, in the way we blend animations. And I’m pretty sure that we already have the code to do that, and we just didn’t implement it in God of War III because it came in real late.”

God of War III releases next week.

Sony has said in the past that some of the games already present in the PS3 catalog will get PS Move support.

Will this include the God of War games? Only if it’s not a “hokey” thing to do, says design director Todd Papy.

Speaking with VG247 during the God of War III event in San Francisco last night, Papy told us that the new motion controller and 3D tech are both something that will be pondered heavily before being incorporated into a God of War title.

“As far as the new motion controller, and the 3D tech coming out, we will just have to look at it and see,” said Papy. “We don’t want it to be hokey, so if it feels hokey, we’re not going to do it. I mean, we don’t have any SIXAXIS stuff in this game, which you know, it was one of those things that didn’t feel right for us.

“You just have to do what feels right for the game, and if it doesn’t don’t do it. Don’t force it. That is the way that we look at it”.

Game’s out next week, and Sony Santa Monica says there is a “possibility” of DLC for it, or an new story featuring Kratos in the future.

The God of War team is talking about DLC right now, or at least the possibility of it – but don’t expect to be seeing it next week, Spartans.

Speaking with VG247 at the God of War III event tonight in San Francisco, design director Todd Papy told us that while the team is currently on a much needed break, it is still discussing the possibility of more content for the game.

“We’re talking about DLC, and the possibilities of it, to see if it’s worth for us to do it,” said Papy. “From a fan standpoint, I think it’s very worth it, but at the same time we don’t want to compromise our next projects.

“We’re gonna take a break, come back, look into new IPs, and at the same time we are going to look and see if there is anything left in the God of War series that we feel is very compelling that we can sink our teeth into, and get really excited about – then it will really translate well into the game and fans will be able to see that as well”.

So where does this leave Kratos now that the trilogy is finished? Apparently, he won’t be riding off into the sunset on Pegasus just yet, we were told in a grinning kind of way.

“The story we set out to tell in the original God of War finishes with this one”, added Papy, “and that’s, well, that’s kind of where I will leave it for now.

“We’re gonna look and see how we can support God of War III, and we’ve got some ideas that we are already looking into and working on, but we’ll see if it ever comes to market”.

There you have it. The possibility of DLC or new IPs for God of War. Kratos would be pleased.

Game’s out next week in the US and UK, and if you don’t go out and buy it, the folks that wrote these reviews will sic a pack of Cerberean hounds on your ass.

Sony Santa Monica has announced it has two new projects in pre-production at the studio: a week before its most recent project, God of War III, launches.

John Hight, product development director at the studio, told MTV:

“We’re jumping right back in, I’ve got a small concept team working on our next product for us.

“We’re actually gonna do something different this time, we’re gonna have a short-term concept, a game that we hope to turn out.”

So when can we expect to hear of this new project?

“I’m not gonna say when.”

Oh.

“But then, we have a much longer term concept team going through, two teams going on at once.

“One with a kind-of long-range, ‘Here’s what we’re gonna do years down the road’, and then another one that’s, ‘Here’s what we’re gonna do as the very next project’.”

Awesome stuff. As for now, God of War III is due out for release next week for PS3.