Original God of War Creator Defends Laufey Director From Abuse

David Jaffe, who created, co-wrote and directed the original God of War before leaving the series in 2007, spent a September livestream reacting to Laufey footage and describing his old clashes with Ariel Lawrence, the franchise creative director who joined the team as an assistant producer on the first game. He claimed their personalities never meshed, that he saw a lack of passion in her work, and he went further by criticizing Cory Barlog for making Laufey at all, calling it a stupid game and asking why nobody told Lawrence it was not ready.

The remarks spread quickly, and Jaffe followed up on X to confront people using them as cover for personal attacks on Lawrence, calling that behaviour low and cruel and reminding readers she is a real person with a life and feelings. He repeated that the two simply never got along and suggested she was probably better liked on the team than he was. Laufey has drawn online abuse since its June reveal, largely aimed at actor Deborah Ann Woll and at the fact that a woman leads the project. The game reaches PS5 on February 16, 2027.

Tags

• playstation
• god-of-war

Sources

• IGN

Where this story ran: one outlet on 29 September 2026. The summary above is written by GamersGuild; the links go to the original reports.

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