The big God of War sequel is one of the year’s most anticipated video games, and you can now play it on Xbox. Yes, that’s right, War Gods Zeus of Child, which stars Sony’s video game character Kratos and a horde of identical and generic monster baddies, is currently available for just $4.09 on the Xbox store.
War Gods Zeus of Child is an approved and legitimate entry in one of Sony’s most valuable franchises sold on a competing console platform.
War Gods Zeus of Child is a great war game. Destroy all enemies and creatures with the Zeus War Gods of challenge. Kill them all with your gun. Launch attacks with various combos. Reach the highest monster kills without dying. Feel the power of the warning god.
And if that didn’t sell you on it, check out this gameplay video from the YouTube channel Red Bandana Gaming:
War Gods Zeus of Child is pretty clearly some God of War ripoff that somehow slipped through the cracks and was published on the Xbox store. Sony has been open about wanting to release more games on mobile and PC, but I can’t imagine it has any plans to bring a God of War game to Xbox. And while Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has said that God of War Ragnarok, the actual God of War sequel, is the game he most wants to play next, although he’d approve of this knockoff game, either.
If the poorly written description and extremely rough video didn’t clue you in, as spotted by Eurogamer, War Gods Zeus of Child’s developer is a Dolaka Ltd. company that has snuck another blatant ripoff onto the Xbox store: a Fall Guys lookalike called Dinasaur Falling Survival.
Microsoft’s strict certification processes typically don’t allow knockoffs to make it to the store (like we sometimes see on mobile app stores). However, Eurogamer speculates that Dolaka’s titles might be sold through the Xbox Creators Program, which lets Xbox developers bypass the typical processes required to publish games. “If your game integrates Xbox services and follows the standard Store policies, you are ready to publish,” Microsoft says on the Xbox Creators Program website.
You don’t have to read far to find an example of how both of Dolaka’s games would violate those standard Store policies, though. Both titles feature characters that are ripoffs of Kratos and a Fall Guys bean. While you are not a lawyer, that would violate section 10.1.1: “your product must not use a name, images, or any other metadata that is the same as that of other products unless you also publish the product.”
The God of War video fun franchise characters belongs to a mythical universe based on Greek mythology and Norse mythology. The series features a spectrum of traditional figures, including Greek mythology, like the Olympian Gods, Titans, and Greek heroes, and those from Norse legend, including the Æsir and Vanir gods and other beings. Several original characters have also been constructed to supplement storylines.
The story arc concentrates on the series’ only playable single-player character, the protagonist Kratos, a Spartan warrior tormented by visions of himself accidentally destroying his wife and child. The character eventually avenges his family by killing his ex-master and manipulator, Ares, the God of War.
Although Kratos evolves into the new God of War, he is still haunted by nightmares. Zeus eventually betrays him, the King of the Olympian Gods—disclosed by the goddess Athena to be Kratos’ father.
The persistent machinations of the Gods and Titans and their mishandling of Kratos eventually drive him to destroy Mount Olympus. Many years following the collapse of Olympus, Kratos ends up in Midgard, fathering a son called Atreus with the Jötunn warrior Laufey.
He orients and teaches the boy while concealing his past from him. Unfortunately, their journey to keep a pledge to the boy’s late mother ends with Kratos and Atreus becoming rivals to the Norse gods. Odin, in particular, is becoming deeply paranoid of him like Zeus was before.