Gears of War franchise narrative director joins God of War studio Sony Santa Monica

The former franchise narrative director for the Gears of War series has joined Sony’s Santa Monica Studio.

Bonnie Jean Mah is swapping Gears of War for God of War, announcing on X (formerly Twitter) that she has joined Santa Monica Studio as a narrative director.

“Alright, let’s do this,” she wrote. “I’m so excited to share my news – I’ve joined Sony Santa Monica as narrative director. I’m beyond thrilled to be working with this team and studio. Let’s gooooo.”

Mah, who originally had a background in film and TV, entered the games industry in 2008 where she was a writer and narrative designer on Warhammer 40:000 Space Marine and Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online.

She then joined Black Tusk Studios (now known as The Coalition) in 2014, where she became franchise narrative manager for the Gears of War IP.

Mah’s other roles at The Coalition included narrative producer on Gears of War 4 and narrative designer for Gears 5, before she left to join Relic Entertainment, where she was the narrative lead and lead writer on Age of Empires 4.

Mah returned to The Coalition in 2019 and became franchise narrative director for Gears of War, overseeing “narrative development on Gears game titles and extended universe publications”.

Following a two-year stint working on an unannounced open world game at Tencent-owned TiMi Montreal, Mah has now joined Sony’s Santa Monica Studio, whose most recent game was God of War Ragnarök.

It’s not yet clear what Mah will be working on but given her role for The Coalition and given Santa Monica Studio’s output, it appears she may be in charge of developing the narrative in God of War games and other media, such as books and Amazon’s upcoming TV series.

Earlier this year, Ben Prendergast – who played the Norse god Tyr in the series – implied his character may be returning in some form, reportedly saying: “I’ll say this – it isn’t the last you’ve seen of Tyr.”

Prendergast’s comments weren’t necessarily confirmation that another God of War game was in development, and could have been referring to a separate God of War project, such as Amazon‘s series.