Sony Santa Monica is making its first new IP in over 20 years

God of War studio Sony Santa Monica is developing its first new IP in over 20 years.

As spotted by a member of ResetEra, a developer at Sony Santa Monica mentioned they’ve been working at the studio “looking after the entire character development pipeline on their new IP”.

In the “about” section of their LinkedIn profile

, a developer supervising character development said they were “thrilled to be back” at Santa Monica after a brief departure to work at Striking Distance and Unknown Worlds.

“Santa Monica Studios presented the opportunity of coming back as character supervisor, looking after the entire Character Development pipeline, on their new IP, so here I am, thrilled to be back, working again with the crew and pushing characters in video games together,” the developer said.

As you no doubt expect, the dev stopped short of revealing what, exactly, the IP is or even what kind of characters they were developing

The studio’s debut game was PS2 racer Kinetica in 2001, but since the first God of War in 2005 Sony Santa Monica’s worked solely on that series (besides assisting development on other projects). A brand new franchise, then, is an intriguing prospect.

Sony recently revealed a new range of figurines called “The Shapes Collection” that includes characters from God of War Ragnarök, Horizon Forbidden West, and Ghost of Tsushima.

Developed in partnership with toy company Spin Master, Sony says the “highly detailed figures deliver the interactive storytelling element of these titles in an all-new way, extending the gaming experience from digital to physical”.