Advertise on podcast: Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast

The dam has broken. After paving the way just last week, Microsoft has confirmed its four games that are coming to PlayStation platforms, and they're arriving a lot sooner than any of us thought. One of them -- Pentiment -- is available on PS4 and PS5 alike right now, while Hi-Fi Rush isn't far behind. Multiplayer titles Grounded and Sea of Thieves will round things out, but certainly, this is just the beginning of the migration, right? Other news this week includes the release date for Elden Ring's long-awaited expansion, percolating PS5 Pro rumors suggesting a fall release, the beginning of Jim Ryan's goodbye tour, PSVR2's PC future, and much more. Listener inquiries help us round things out, as usual. Did Hiroki Totoki successfully diagnose Bungie's issues? Does Sony suffer and Nintendo benefit from a double-standard when it comes to porting and otherwise re-releasing their respective games? Could Resistance: Retribution's reemergence indicate a future for the dormant franchise? Is Brad saying "Colin" wrong on all of his shows? This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/symbols and get on your way to being your best self Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's been an unusual week in the PlayStation ecosystem, especially in recent years, where the exclusives and heavy-hitters from Sony primarily resided in the single-player sphere. But then a game like Helldivers 2 drops out of orbit, and suddenly we're brought back to the days of SOCOM, Killzone, and others, when PlayStation had an actual online identity, albeit a fledgling one. Could this be the beginning of a great new trend? Or does pessimism reign supreme? Other news this week includes the most vague, circular PR from Xbox that confirms -- yes, indeed -- Xbox games are en route to PlayStation beginning with four titles, while Sony releases a financial report that shows promising revenue and meteoric PS5 sales, but with serious financial warnings on the horizon. Plus: What the hell is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet? Is there a rift between Konami and Bloober Team? Are people overreacting to the Tomb Raider Remaster's content warning label? Then: Listener inquiries! Where do we fall in the raging 'yellow paint' debate? What's our favorite JRPG battle system? Which order should the Castlevania games be played in? Was Colin's and Micah's recent visit to Cracker Barrel everything they hoped it'd be? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We know that Xbox games are migrating to PlayStation, and by the next episode of this very show, we'll have a much better idea of what a future slate of Microsoft products on Sony's console may look like. In the meantime, however, we're left to wonder how we got here in the first place. One could easily argue that PlayStation's and Xbox's rivalry essentially concluded with the end of the 360/PS3 era (Microsoft has been nowhere near Sony in terms of quality, mindshare, or revenue ever since), but we may very well be on the cusp of a true sea change not seen since the decline of SEGA. While we wait for answers, let's speculate and analyze to our hearts' content. Let's also delve into some other news -- Stellar Blade protagonist complaints, Disney's marriage with Epic, The Last of Us: Part III rumblings, and more -- and conclude with listener inquiries, like we always do. Are we amped for Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden? Is IGN's staff unionization drive a wise move in this environment? Do we overestimate the importance of the Uncharted franchise to gaming? Could we maybe tone it down a bit on the nearly-six hour episodes? Get 10% off your entire order at https://www.thefreezepipe.com and use code SACRED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new State of Play presentation -- arguably the best Sony has ever executed -- has given us a plethora of items to discuss on this week's all-new episode of Sacred Symbols. For starters, we finally have a release date for the amazing-looking second party PS5 exclusive action-RPG Stellar Blade, which we cannot wait to play. We also got a lengthy glimpse at Team Ninja's Rise of the Ronin, confirmation of a near-remake of Until Dawn from Ballistic Moon, a fresh look at Death Stranding 2 en route to PS5 in 2025, and the confirmation of a new, MGS-like Kojima series, presumably on PlayStation 6 (!). And there's lots of other news, too, including the first details concerning Firesprite's upcoming title, Project Heartbreak. Likewise, MLB: The Show 24 and Horizon: Forbidden West's PC port have both been dated, obscure PlayStation vehicular combat game Hardware Rivals may be returning, classic shooter Spec Ops: The Line has been delisted, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is driving people insane, leaks indicate we'll be playing Xbox 'exclusives' on PlayStation very soon, and much more. Finally: Listener inquiries! Are recent rumors of a new Sony handheld to be believed? Have Battle Passes ruined online gaming forever? Is cross-media the future no matter how much it's resisted? Can we please stop with the double-spacing, once and for all? Start the Good Habit at https://www.tryfum.com/SACRED to save 10% off the Journey Pack today. Start building credit at https://www.chime.com/sacred Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our beloved games industry is currently mired in an economic crisis of its own creation. By rapidly expanding corporate headcounts during the pandemic -- and by foolishly forecasting 2020-era gaming habits would persist into future years -- many publishers and developers have found themselves dramatically overextended. In 2022, some 8,500 people lost their jobs in gaming; that number grew appreciably to 10,500 last year. Here in 2024, though? Not even a month into the calendar, we're sitting at around 6,000 job losses. And it's going to get way worse. How did pubs and devs get this so wrong? And how come the human cost falls upon the people who were hired, but not those that did the hiring? Plus: A reliable rumor indicates Until Dawn is PS5-and-PC-bound, Death Stranding 2's re-reveal may be right around the corner, Focus Entertainment foolishly rebrands itself, and more. Then: Let's wrap things up with listener inquiries, as usual. How do we balance multiple games at once? Could the harm leaks do to studios actually be overstated? Is paywalling New Game+ a step too far? When is the appropriate time in the day to shower? This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/symbols and get on your way to being your best self Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As we wade through the mundanity of the turn-of-the-year -- when very few new games come to market and we work through our respective backlogs -- hope sits on the horizon. After all, the drab is about to turn into the delightful with the release or near-release of the likes of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, The Last of Us: Part II Remastered, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Persona 3 Remake, and Helldivers 2, among others. And as we look forward to all of that, we have news galore to cover, too. Square Enix's Splatoon-like Foamstars is coming to PlayStation+ day-and-date, but is its mild use of AI art egregious? (And what about its strange proximity to Helldivers 2?) Ubisoft+ is being reformed as a more value-rich proposition for consumers, so why did so many outlets blatantly take one of their executives out of context following a recent interview? PlayStation Productions is pursuing an Until Dawn film based on the cult-hit PS4-exclusive horror game, but are we starting to beat a dead horse? Plus: Listener inquiries! Are we getting too fast and loose with the term 'live service'? Why do some developers and publishers choose to hire diversity consultants? Should we expect an exorbitant number of Steamboat Willie games in the near-to-mid future? Will Chris continue to be bullied over his love of Julia Louis-Dreyfus? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The most infamous character in The Last of Us franchise is undoubtedly Abby, and with her casting in the HBO rendition of the famous Naughty Dog series now set (along with a couple of other key roles), we're starting to get more clarity about just what her on-screen vendetta with Ellie will look like come 2025. Are we about to relive 2020 all over again, or will fans be pleased? And then there's Xbox, a conspicuous subject that seems to keep coming up on Sacred Symbols for one simple reason: Smoke indicates fire. Fresh on the back of denouncements about GamePass on PlayStation comes compelling industry rumors of multiple first party Xbox games en route to the PlayStation ecosystem, potentially in the form of Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush. Does this move represent the opening frames of a coup de grace? Other news this week includes Helldivers 2 PC details, a DualSense model with a better battery, disastrous Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League previews, rampant corporate layoffs, the confusing reemergence of Gravity Rush and Patapon, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! Is gaming experiencing a dangerous economic bubble? Could Horizon's rumored MMO skip PlayStation 5? Have we been too hard on Spider-Man 2? Can Chris raise the spirits of a listener merely by changing his usual podcast outro ever-so-slightly? Start the Good Habit at https://www.tryfum.com/SACRED to save 10% off the Journey Pack today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sony-owned Insomniac Games suffered a major hack in late 2023, and seemingly infinite leaks made their way to various corners of the internet mere days after we went away for break. We're not going to shy away from the subject matter -- the news is the news, after all -- but we do want to talk about the situation holistically. Yes, Insomniac is a money-printing machine, but it's also now almost completely indentured to a licensor to keep the supply of cash flowing, and may be unable to stop if it wants to survive. Meanwhile, many of our peers and competitors shied away from covering the topic at all, in perhaps one of the rarest and most pristine examples of media bias seen in recent memory. Let's delve into all of it, shall we? Since we haven't recorded in some time, there's obviously other news to get through as well, including a new sales milestone for PS5, tantalizing details about NCSoft's mysterious Horizon MMO, the quiet return of CoD veteran Jason Blundell to the PlayStation fold, the closure of a key PSVR second party partner, and more. Listener inquiries help us round things out, touching on topics like NCAA Football's return, PS5 Pro's potential, GTAVI's potential price, and an admission that -- yes, indeed -- sleeping without underwear but in a t-shirt is the optimal way for one to rest. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/symbols and get on your way to being your best self Start building credit at https://www.chime.com/sacred Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2023 is done (or just about, depending on when you listen to or watch this), and it was an undeniably awesome year for our industry, and for all of us as enthusiasts. But now we can begin to safely -- and even earnestly -- look into 2024, and figure out just what we're most excited to play in this new calendar year. Each cast member brought five games to discuss, making 15 total. Of course, our selections don't nearly represent the full spectrum of available titles people are stoked about, but we're confident we'll have pointed you in a few fruitful directions by the end of our brief recording. Our only rule? The game in question has to be dated for 2024 on PlayStation 5. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The holiday season is here, and it's thus time to employ the first of our traditional yearly wrap-up episodes. Let's take a gander back at the year that was, not only in PlayStation, but in the gaming world surrounding the brand, too. Each Sacred cast member brings five 'moments' to the table, and naturally, they're of a wide array. Jim Ryan's retirement, PlayStation 5's domination, PSVR2's irrelevance, Bungie's problems, Unity's meltdown, Yuij Naka's prosecution, Baldur's Gate 3's success, PS5 Pro's inevitability, and more are on the board. Let's get to each topic -- and more! -- as we wind our way through 2023 with a keen eye toward 2024. Start the Good Habit at https://www.tryfum.com/ SACRED to save 10% off the Journey Pack today. Get 20% off your first order plus free shipping at https://www.meundies.com/sacred Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We recorded a full episode of the show -- originally called Deader Than Dead because of the demise of E3 -- but we had no idea how apt that title would actually become. In the hours after we hit stop, word broke of Naughty Dog's cancellation of The Last of Us' standalone Factions mode, which they call The Last of Us Online (as first reported right here on Sacred Symbols). Naturally, we had to record a lengthy pickup to discuss the unfortunate news. And yes: E3 is dead, as mentioned above. From 1995 through 2019, E3 ran each and every year in LA (except for those two random Atlanta shows in the '90s), and it was a gathering point for games professionals, the media, and others. But as the magazine era gave way to web 1.0, and then to 2.0, and now to wherever we are now, the once mighty convention has no place in an environment where devs, publishers, and consumers can reach each other directly. In short: Let's give E3 the viking funeral it deserves. Plus: Insomniac purportedly gets hacked, Spider-Man 2's updates have been delayed, film production house A24 teams up with Kojima, fresh Resident Evil remakes are en route, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! If Blade is an Xbox console exclusive, why won't Microsoft just say so? Should we expect a State of Play early in the new year? How did FNTASTIC take their customers for a ride with The Day Before? Is Colin's "please look forward to that" saying simply an alteration of Jeb Bush's "please clap" debacle? Start the Good Habit at https://www.tryfum.com/ SACRED to save 10% off the Journey Pack today. Get 20% off your first order plus free shipping at https://www.meundies.com/sacred Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a long wait, PlayStation utilized Geoff Keighley's Game Awards to reveal new information about its upcoming slate of first party games. Psych! While TGA's three-hour runtime was ample -- and while a litany of quality games were announced and explored -- PlayStation's complete lack of first party presence (outside of free God of War: Ragnarok DLC) is notable. Will the company ever talk again? Or will we continue to be stuck in this pincer, with promising second and third party games coming down the pike, but precious little information about what matters most to Sony's more hardcore and devoted fans? Nonetheless, we break down The Game Awards' announcements one-by-one, getting deep into the likes of Exodus, Kemuri, Visions of Mana, Last Sentinel, Exoborne, and more. And there's a heck of a lot to talk about outside of the event, too, including the release of Grand Theft Auto VI's first official trailer and serious trouble brewing at Sony-owned Bungie. As is typical, we wrap things up with listener inquiries from the audience. Is Fortnite primed to take over the world? Do we simply have to spend more time with PSVR2? How long do retro enthusiasts expect their hardware to last? Can we get our hands on one of those "Thank You Jim" cookies from Jim Ryan's retirement party? Get 20% off your first order and a free gram of THCa flower at https://www.hellomood.com and use code SACRED This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/symbols and get on your way to being your best self  Start the Good Habit at https://www.tryfum.com/ SACRED to save 10% off the Journey Pack today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices