A world exclusive trailer for God of War III was showed at the Spike TV powered Video Games Awards and now Sony is beginning to slowly release information regarding the title, which should arrive in the second half of 2009.

A recent press release regarding the game, sent out by Sony, claims that the title will be “the last installment of the multi-million unit franchise,” among other things. Could “last” only mean “most recent” or is Sony really thinking of killing Kratos off in the game and ending the series with God of War III? At the moment, it's anyone's guess.

Can such a successful series end with its third installment? On the one hand, Sony knows that both the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable need to attract as many exclusive AAA games as they can in order to get better sales. God of War is one name that can draw in gamers and one of the few exclusive established franchises Sony has right now.

On the other hand, Sony surely understands that any franchise cannot be milked for money so many times. A quick look at how Need For Speed has evolved over the year, especially as far as critical acclaim goes, can surely demonstrate that the quality of the games in a series tends to go down as the number of releases increases. So, for God of War going out with a big bang could be better than dying with only a whisper. After all, gamers might be interested in God of War III, but will the enthusiasm still be there for a potential God of War VI?

We're not going to see anything set in stone regarding future plans for God of War until the third title in the series launches. And let's hope that Sony manages to make this game one that will deliver excitement, innovation and solid gameplay.