New God of War title Ascends with cover art, teaser trailer (Updated)

And so we begin.

We’ve reviewed many a God of War title, most notably the third and most recent instalment of the franchise back in early 2010. Since then, details on a new game have been based around rumours which are shaky at best. However, today comes word of an unofficial-official reveal of a new entry in the franchise, titled Ascension.

Assumed to be a prequel (remember, this game technically hasn’t been announced), God of War: Ascension drops the roman numeral title schemes in favour of a subtitle, presumably to distance itself from the original game’s story arc.

In an odd twist for a leak, we have a rather official looking teaser trailer, complete with the usual Sony markings and design cues. We also have a piece of box art that isn’t final, but is done so well that it must be one of the official designs in the running for the retail version.

Of course, as you might expect, we have no other information to go on – isn’t what we’ve already got enough? – which means we have no idea when the game will be launching, but you can bet your hard earned cash that we won’t be seeing it until holiday season 2012 at the earliest. Until then, take a look at the teaser below before it’s removed by Sony for copyright violation. That is if Sony didn’t plant the video out there in the first place.

There’s little doubt that we’ll be finding out more details on everything once E3 rolls around – unless Sony wants to pull a Last Guardian on us – but if there’s anything else to report before then, you know we’ll have it here for you at the ‘plante.

• Update: Looks like it’s all official, and the game is being helmed by none other than Todd Papy, designer of the first set of God of War titles. The title will be produced out of Sony’s Santa Monica Studios and while we don’t have an official release date yet, there is a live-stream event to take place on the PlayStation.Blog and Facebook on April 30th at 11 am EST to find out more about the game. In the meantime, take a look at the official reveal post by heading on over to the PlayStation.Blog right now!