Sons of Sparta Brings God of War to PS4

God of War: Sons of Sparta comes to PlayStation 4 on November 16, 2026. Santa Monica Studio confirmed the port on November 13 by updating its announcement for the game, which has been available on PlayStation 5 since February 12, 2026. The prequel follows a young Kratos and his brother Deimos, and it retells the series as a retro-inspired 2D action platformer instead of the camera-over-the-shoulder format of the recent main games.

The port isn't arriving alone. Two new modes land on both consoles with it. Hermes mode unlocks after a player finishes the game and gives them timing tools built for speedruns, so a second playthrough becomes a race against the clock. Erebus mode is available from the start, and it doesn't wait for mastery: one hit kills the player, and one hit kills each enemy, so every room becomes a problem of not getting touched.

Sons of Sparta was developed by Mega Cat Studios with Santa Monica Studio. Mega Cat pitched the project as a kind of God of War zero, imagining how the series would have looked on the original PlayStation. Sony counts the game as part of the official canon, and its story team overlaps with the group behind God of War in 2018, God of War Ragnarök and the Valhalla downloadable content.

The PS4 release widens the audience in a way PS5 ports usually don't. PlayStation's previous console still sits in a large number of living rooms, and a 2D game doesn't need the newer hardware's storage speed or ray tracing to run as designed. For Sony, it's a low-risk way to keep the series in front of players between major releases, on hardware those players already own.

That gap is real. The next main entry, God of War Laufey, was delayed by three months and is now a PlayStation 5 release dated May 20, 2027, moved from February 2027. Sons of Sparta on PS4, with two modes that reward replaying a short game, is the bridge Sony has chosen to fill the wait.

Pricing for the PS4 version in the United States hasn't been confirmed in the announcement coverage, so players should check the PlayStation Store listing before November 16 rather than assume parity with the PS5 edition. What is confirmed is the shape of the offer: the full prequel, both new modes, and no need to buy a new console to play a 2026 God of War.