God of War's Sex Minigames Were Largely Designed by Women, Developer Reveals

Image via Sony

The sex minigames from the original God of War trilogy were largely created by women on the development team, according to former Sony Santa Monica writer Alanah Pearce.

This detail has resurfaced following fresh commentary from Pearce, who worked at the studio for several years and contributed to God of War Ragnarok.

Pearce shared this during a recent livestream, where she spoke about her time at the studio and her experience working alongside some of the developers behind those older games. She mentioned that one of the women who worked on the minigames was someone she knew personally, and that the developer was genuinely proud of her contributions.

"When you look at it, it makes sense, but I feel like a lot of people didn't notice that. I worked with one of the women who worked on these, and she was, like, very proud of it, and it was really fucking cool."

The original God of War games, along with the PSP title God of War: Chains of Olympus, each featured some version of a sex minigame. Players would initiate the scene with a button press, after which the camera would pan away. From there, a series of quick-time events would follow.

The minigames were fairly straightforward in design, but it turns out the thought put into the surrounding environment ran deeper than most players ever realized.

As reported by Eurogamer, Pearce specifically called out Aphrodite's chamber from one of the earlier entries, claiming it was intentionally designed with female anatomy in mind.

"In fact, when you walk into, I think it's Aphrodite's chamber, this was designed, again, including a group of women, to look like a labia. Like, it's literally designed to be evocative of a vagina. And the women were the ones who did that," she explained. She added, "When you look at it, it makes sense, but I feel like a lot of people didn't notice that."

Pearce also weighed in on whether these minigames should return in the God of War remakes that Sony has recently announced at State of Play. She said she is "pro sex minigame" and that while the scenes are "a little silly the way it was in those games," she still believes they "belong there."

She does not view them as disrespectful toward women either. In her view, the scenes actually serve a narrative purpose, reflecting who Kratos was at that point in his arc and highlighting just how hollow his rage-fueled lifestyle truly was. That character flaw, she noted, becomes the very foundation of the journey he goes on in the 2018 reboot and its sequel.