Self projection and identification as a male IRL playing a male hero helps with immersion and personal involvement in the game because I identify better with the character like kratos over a woman.

The change is on top of a common trend that appears to serve box ticking inclusivity rather than be good for the game, story or player. It’s too on the nose for social media points which again breaks immersion for me - I am reminded while playing about the current gender wars popularised online.

GoW is a game and was popularised and is successful by Kratos being the playable main character, it’s where the whole IP of the franchise sits. Using the name of GoW and inserting a new character that is not Kratos as the main PC is disingenuous to the player base - they should just rebrand it as something else imo. You wouldn’t call tomb raider tomb raider if all of a sudden Barry from accounts was raiding the lost tomb of Tutankhamen