Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast

PlayStation's self-inflicted physical games fiasco is nearing a month deep, and it seems fairly obvious at this point that nothing's going to change. The good news is that -- amongst all the chatter, arguing, and prognostication -- comes more info from the American market that indicates that Sony is pissing people off, yes, but also making a seemingly rational commercial decision from their perspective. Thus, we find ourselves in a continued bind: Through all of the screaming and insulting is salient data, should one be willing to look with sober eyes. We discuss. Plus: Marathon loses its game director, Bethesda vows to deliver a lot more Fallout, Rebel Wolves promises Mass Effect-like save migration for its nascent Blood of Dawnwalker series, NBA 2K27 skips PlayStation 4, Kratos gets recast in Amazon's God of War series, and more. We then wrap things up, as we always do, with listener inquiries from our audience. What are our expectations for Until Dawn 2? Did the elimination of crunch culture in some corners of the industry have unexpected downstream effects? Should Grand Theft Auto be held to account for the real-world violence it potentially inspires? Has Colin created a new mosquito bite-obliterating trend?

Timestamps:

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00 - Intro17:43 - Del Walker has great insight21:03 - Marathon's PVE mode31:45 - Feel better, Brent32:32 - Moriarty X Jaffe summer camp44:43 - More sports talk please48:52 - Dexter can't dance53:24 - Mosquito's suck57:22 - Physical game sales on PS5 are struggling + June US sales data1:59:31 - Marathon's director quits2:17:10 - Bethesda confirms Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters2:33:22 - Blood of the Dawnwalker will carry its saves over into future games2:38:06 - NBA 2K27’s cover athletes revealed, skips PS42:42:34 - Jonathan Blow’s new game confirmed for launch on PS52:45:37 - God of War’s Amazon show is recasting Kratos after on-set injury2:49:45 - The first Call of Duty film is less than a year out2:52:18 - What We're Playing (Onimusha, Onimusha 2, Powerwash Simulator 2 Star Wars DLC, Marathon, Halo Campaign Evolved)3:08:38 - Can Until Dawn 2 live up to its predecessor?3:13:29 - Is the elimination of crunch the cause of ballooning budgets?3:19:34 - The phasing out of trilogies3:24:42 - Will retro hardware prices skyrocket?3:30:38 - Does GTA cause violence?3:40:51 - Should Sony fund smaller single player games?
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A new report from a trusted gaming industry analyst projects PlayStation 6 to launch in 2028 and sell only four million units in its first calendar year on the market. When you consider that even PS3 managed to sell three and a half million units in a mere four months, well, it might be a tough row to hoe. And when you take into account that this analysis assumes PS6 will sell for between $600 and $800, Sony may be in for a rude awakening indeed. We discuss. Then again, other analysis paints a far rosier picture, at least as far as Grand Theft Auto VI pre-sales are concerned, where Sony will be raking it in by the many hundreds of millions in royalties alone. Other news this week includes EA's reversal on its controversial College Football 27 microtransactions, the dominance of Call of Duty: Black Ops I and II's PSN release, the delay of the upcoming first party fight stick FlexStrike, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! Is PlayStation in dire need of a spokesperson? Does Crunchyroll's new approach with its subscription portend a dicey future for PSN? Have we ever lent a physical game to a friend (or someone else) and never received it back? Could Episode 420 mean throwing all caution to the wind?

Timestamps:

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00 - Intro51:17 - PlayStation at San Diego Comic-Con57:15 - Analyst forecasts a soft PS6 launch1:12:07 - GTA VI to make billions in its first week1:20:47 - EA backtracks on controversial monetization1:33:35 - Black Ops 1 and 2 dominate PSN1:44:07 - Sony finally elaborates heavily on Ranger Rumble1:53:14 - Sony’s FlexStrike fight stick hits “unexpected production delays”2:00:10 - Was Sony once exploring an animated Horizon series?2:05:43 - Koei Tecmo rapidly expands headcount2:17:22 - Halo: Campaign Evolved goes gold2:22:50 - The Blood of Dawnwalker goes gold2:24:47 - New Game Catalog additions for July2:34:13 - Mouse: PI and Black Flag sales soar2:42:21 - What We're Playing (GTA V, GTA Online, Librarian, GTA SA)3:09:54 - Is the console doom and gloom overstated?3:19:52 - Are we buying the PS6 at launch?3:27:16 - Should PlayStation invest in a face?3:34:21 - Did a friend ever steal one of your games?3:40:18 - Crunchyroll gets paywalled behind higher tiers3:49:47 - Is it time for Sony to give the PlayStation TV another shot?
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We're more than a week removed from the controversial decision to scrap new physical releases for PlayStation hardware beginning in early 2028, and even with a robust outpouring of rage from a portion of its hardcore audience, Sony doesn't seem like it's going to budge. This has come to surprise some people; yet, the longer Sony continues its silence on the topic, the more unlikely it'll be that anything will change. Will the Japanese megacorporation's wait-and-see approach pay off? Is there still time to turn the ship around? Are physical buyers vastly overestimating their power and positioning? There's much more to discuss surrounding the worst period of PR for the PlayStation brand since 2011. Other news this week includes furor over language in the European PSN's terms of service, drama surrounding Marvel Tokon's release on Steam, significant layoffs at Xbox that deeply affect PlayStation-aligned developers like id and Obsidian, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! Is it weird that Sony executives sold more than $10 million in stock after their infamous physical games announcement? What's going on with EA's insane monetization policies in College Football 27? Why couldn't Bluepoint spin-out from Sony like Microsoft is allowing some of its teams to do? Does Dustin have similarly arcane powers as Brad, just pointed in the opposite direction?

Timestamps:

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00 - Intro22:12 - Yet another Sacred baby24:04 - The Blue Reaper32:32 - Enough of the Euroslander34:18 - Wet wipes are a game changer39:07 - Infamous 2 UGC servers shutting down42:05 - Christopher Barrett settled his lawsuit with Bungie and Sony55:04 - Sony won’t reverse course on physical media1:06:22 - Sony starts repurposing its factories2:24:40 - European fans freak out about account deletion2:29:22 - Marvel Tokon on PC won’t launch in 132 countries2:34:41 - Microsoft guts id Software3:10:33 - Obsidian returns to Fallout3:25:55 - Undead Labs spins-out from Xbox3:32:42 - IO Interactive reclaims its cancelled Xbox second party game3:34:45 - June 2026’s top downloads on PSN3:35:50 - What We're Playing (GTA V, GTA SA, Mercenaries 2, PURE)3:51:27 - Microsoft is good while Sony is evil?3:56:26 - What's stopping Bluepoint from staying together?4:00:53 - Sony CEO sells 50% of his stock?4:06:45 - Crash Team Racing tips and tricks4:09:37 - EA Sports College Football 27 uproar4:17:39 - Bethesda's lay-off memorial
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It seems that no matter where one looks in the gaming industry, there's bad news on the horizon. Such is certainly the case with Sony, as the Japanese company announced two pieces of bad news concurrent to one another: That beginning in 2028, PlayStation hardware will no longer receive disc-based releases, and that by next summer, you will no longer be able to buy digital PS3 and Vita games. All things considered, the latter is a more understandable decision (after all, Sony tried to do this back in 2021 before pulling back), but the former situation has set the PlayStation fanbase alight in a way we've not seen since perhaps 2011, if not 2006, both extremely ominous years in the brand's history. We discuss both topics in great detail, incorporate a ton of your inquiries, and try to make sense of what's happening from every conceivable angle. There's other news this week, too, including Sony's stance on hardware subsidies, PlayStation's continuing commitment to the games-as-a-service sector, new roster additions for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! Is Exodus' scrapping of its in-game character creator a sign of things to come? Why are some publishers and developers so secretive with sales figures? What potential ideas could emulate the interplay between EVE Online and Dust-514? Did Dustin answer the Dustin-signal that Colin sent into the atmospheric ether?

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Timestamps:

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00 - Intro20:52 - Welcome Lily24:01 - Loud neighbors39:11 – Colin's plan of succession42:13 – The return of the King46:23 – Starting in 2028, PlayStation consoles will no longer receive new games on disc1:17:23 – Sony’s strategy1:39:54 – Why is Sony removing this option?1:52:50 – The passive income of disc production1:57:49 – What’s this mean for pricing?2:03:19 – Improving the storefront2:09:10 – Should the ownership paradigm shift?2:18:48 – Codes at stores again?2:25:58 – Multiple storefronts, buying outside of PSN2:30:07 – Does “pro-consumerism” even work?2:32:04 – Have the people spoken?2:33:47 – The never-ending rural problem2:37:00 – Lillymo2:42:32 – PS3 and Vita’s digital storefronts will go offline forever in one year3:15:53 – Sony won’t subsidize its hardware beyond a certain point3:19:29 – PS5 has its worst May on the US market since the late PSone era3:24:44 – Sony says it has to (and will) keep investing in games-as-a-service3:31:59 – Sony pulls Studio Canal films from the PSN backend3:35:24 – Shaun Layden says Sony is making a mistake by stopping its PC support3:43:11 – Blade, Loki, and Deadpool revealed for Marvel Tokon3:46:37 – Capcom moves Onimusha’s date up3:47:46 – July’s PS+ Essential games3:49:40 – Persona is getting a live action TV series3:51:54 – What We're Playing (Luna Abyss, GTA V, GTA: San Andreas)4:07:45 – When will consumers vote with their wallet?4:14:11 – Exodus will no longer feature a full character creator4:19:04 – Why are companies so reluctant to share sales data?4:22:24 – Does end game DLC generate more revenue?4:27:35 – Why won't the PS6 be delayed?4:30:40 – What franchises could benefit from a Dust-like shared world?
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With Grand Theft Auto VI finally launching this November, we've been left without a key piece of information: Its price. Conjecture and prognostication has run rampant, but now we have confirmation that GTA6's base cost is $80 in the United States, with a $100 version offering players some perks and unlocks. With our long-awaited trip down to Leonida drawing closer on the horizon, we've much to discuss, including our hype level, whether we'll buy the base or special edition, the lack of a real physical version, and -- perhaps most intriguingly -- no new trailer or gameplay videos to help sell a product that (let's be honest) probably doesn't need much help to begin with. Other news this week includes significant layoffs at Sony-owned Bungie, indications that God of War: Laufey may launch as early as Q1 2027, more delisted shovelware tripe removed from PlayStation Store, executive-level issues at FromSoft, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! What's with Steam Machine's absurd price? Should Sony look to invest in any of Xbox's distressed assets? Why did PlayStation even bother publishing Midnight Murder Club if they were only going to ignore it? Will Chris and Colin one day have their shared ex-psychiatrist on the show to discuss our many mental ailments?

Timestamps:

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00 - Intro22:50 - Happy Birthday nerd35:46 - Trophy hunting37:10 - Chris has a new voice47:15 - Release the files55:38 - The Green Reaper57:31 - GTA VI "plays best" on PlayStation 51:46:15 - Bungie lays of hundreds2:11:09 - Bungie pitched a Destiny dating game2:15:35 - God of War: Laufey might launch in Q1 20272:17:02 - Deborah Ann Woll claims Laufey was pitched in 20182:25:06 - PlayStation Store shovelware developer bites the dust2:30:53 - Kadokawa says Fromsoft is being mismanaged2:39:21 - Tencent exits from several game studio investments2:43:47 - What We're Playing (Pragmata, LEGO Batman, Luna Abyss, GTA: San Andreas)3:05:33 - Steam Machine pricing3:26:19 - Could Sony invest in XBOX?3:31:15 - What's next for Sony?3:40:03 - Midnight Murder Club received its final update3:46:05 - Is gambling software okay?3:54:55 - Should Sony stick to its existing IP catalog?
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