UPDATE: Sony went ahead and confirmed the existence of God of War: Ascension this morning via the PlayStation blog. So yes, the game officially exists, and yes, it is a prequel of some fashion. How far back that prequel story will go is yet unknown, though it's safe to assume it'll be some chapter of the story that includes as-yet-unseen vengeance and violent, visceral death. Unless, of course, Sony has really jumped the shark and gone the Star Wars prequel route, with the intent to show Kratos as a really angry little kid. While I will admit I would derive a bit of weird amusement out of seeing Kratos as a stab-happy toddler, that would probably get old pretty quick.

We'll know more come April 30, as the PS Blog entry says more details are expected to be released then. I'm guessing they won't be giving those details to Amazon early again, so odds are you'll actually have to wait this time. Sorry about that.

What you see above is a trailer for God of War: Ascension. "But Alex," you ask, "Sony hasn't announced a game called God of War: Ascension yet!" Oops?

Blame Amazon for the early leak. They evidently posted up this teaser, alongside some placeholder box art for the game this evening. Considering we've been hearing no shortage of rumors regarding a forthcoming God of War IV (or, in this case, God of War: Ascension) announcement, one can imagine that Sony was prepping some kind of big reveal for the title...at least it was. Until now. I bet it was going to be really cool, too.

Instead, here is your teaser trailer and box art, ingloriously shoved out the door into the harsh reality of the Internet before its time, forced to fend for itself with no major marketing event nor official press release to properly help usher it into a world it never made. Really tragic, that.

On the other hand, there's a new God of War game coming, which is actually rather awesome. Though I am going to have to replay God of War III at some point. I can barely even remember what happened in that game. What about you guys? Anyone else good and ready for some more heavy metal Greek God slaying?