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PODCAST

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast

Last Stand Media & Studio71

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast is the internet"s premiere weekly PlayStation show dedicated to coverage of PS5, PS4, PSVR2, and Sony"s deep gaming legacy stretching back to the mid-"90s. Join 20+ year gaming industry veteran and PlayStation brand expert Colin Moriarty -- along with his co-hosts comedian Chris Ray Gun and producer Dustin Furman -- as they go through the news of the week, highlight the best recent games, and interact with their incredibly loyal audience, all without taking

leisure video games

All Episodes

256:33

#280 | Hiroki Totoki Literature Club

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/11/13

Sony Corp's quarterly financials have finally arrived, and they carry within good news for the PlayStation brand. PS5 is selling briskly, third party games are moving, monthly active users are steady, and so on. But this recent report portends rougher times ahead, too, especially when it comes to PlayStation's vaunted dozen-or-so 'games-as-a-service' that once promised to help shepherd in a new era of Sony exclusive. And all of this against the backdrop of a mysteriously-exiting CEO? With Concord

en

220:07

#279 | You Wore Our Expectations Like an Armored Suit

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/11/06

Layoffs at Bungie are just the latest in a line of labor issues for PlayStation and its studios in recent months, but as usual, there's great dissonance afoot. Consider this: PS5 is selling briskly, Spider-Man 2 is a critical and commercial smash-hit, and high demand for Sony's product persists as we enter the generation's fourth year. So how can the day-to-day news be so bad when the end result is so positive? Between employee tribulation, an exiting CEO, a fired legendary producer, and more, just

en

208:51

#278 | Only Skepticism Will Save You

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/10/30

These are undoubtedly strange times in the PlayStation world. As if getting a new CEO next fiscal year wasn't enough of a shakeup, the brand has also lost (in an apparent firing) their long-time Head of Internal Production Connie Booth, someone who has been with Sony since the late '80s and who helped bring to market such titans as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, The Last of Us, and more. With fresh layoffs hitting in-house teams like Media Molecule and support hubs like Visual

en

218:56

#277 | Is the Skinsuit Complete?

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/10/23

We've talked about it ad nauseam on this very show: With a competitor like Microsoft, Sony has every reason to be concerned. The Xbox brand is willing to spend however much on whatever's out there, and whether or not it all adds up in the end doesn't exactly matter. After all, only 6¢ of every dollar Microsoft earns comes from gaming, and that's something they want to enhance no matter the price. But in cobbling together its hodgepodge skinsuit of developers over the years, is their expansion now

en

197:57

#276 | Second Life

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/10/16

The new era of PlayStation 5 is here, at least in terms of a hardware revision. Like every PlayStation console before it, PS5's upgrade comes packing a smaller form factor, and increased storage and an optional disc drive sweetens the deal. But this so-called PS5 Slim comes with a peculiarly stubborn price that isn't reflective of generations past. Could it be that the dueling pressures of inflation and monetary conversion rates have finally come to bear? Either way, one thing's for certain: These

en

273:53

#275 | Attention Deficit Disorder

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/10/09

A light smoke is emitting from sunny Santa Monica, but is there cause for concern? Sony's crown jewel studio Naughty Dog has recently let some contractors go, and -- worse yet, if reporting is to be believed -- its long-awaited Factions spin-off has been shelved, with an exiting bigwig and an unknown future. When combined with SEGA's cancellation of Creative Assembly's Hyenas, which was apparently the publisher's most expensive project ever, we simply have to ask: Do games-as-a-service have the

en

283:08

#274 | Jim Ryan Is Sick of Flyin'

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/10/02

PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan -- sometimes known on this show as Cryin' Jim for whatever reason -- is officially retiring from Sony next spring. Why? The demand of incessant travel, which is wearing him awfully thin after all these years (he's expected to be on three continents each and every month, an absurdity). He's been with the company since before the original PlayStation launched in '94, and his business and marketing acumen saw him rise the ranks of Sony's gaming outfit, first in Europe and then

en

277:16

#273 | They Are Who We Thought They Were

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/09/25

We have PlayStation news to get to and through, of course -- and lots of it! -- but so many of you wrote into the show about the recent Xbox leak that we couldn't just ignore it. And really, nothing we learned from the treasure trove of documents one way or the other should come as much of a surprise, so we'll let a famous Coach Green quote do the talking instead. Has the games industry let Microsoft off the hook?! Plus: PS5 sales surge in Europe, The Division 3 is real, Final Fantasy VII Remake

en

279:35

#272 | The Unanimity of the Unity

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/09/18

A State of Play stream was announced right before this week's episode, so naturally we watched it, and our thoughts are within. Topics of interest from Sony's showing include release dates for Helldivers II and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, new PS5 and DualSense colors, an open beta for Foamstars, Resident Evil 4 Remake DLC, and more. However, all of that news is covered in a pickup, because we recorded a huge show for you without all of that. Have you heard what's going on with the popular engine

en

255:54

#271 | Great Artists Steal

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/09/11

Hollywood's labor problem may not be an isolated event in the entertainment industry for much longer. A recent press release from actors union SAG-AFTRA indicates that their members will vote to authorize a strike upon further negotiations with 10 major entities in gaming, including the likes of EA, Take Two, and even Sony-owned developer Insomniac. After all, the guild represent voice and performance actors in many of our favorite games. Yes, the consequences for not getting a deal done could

en

198:16

#270 | PlayStation Minus

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/09/04

For the first time since 2016, Sony has increased the price of its PlayStation Plus subscription, and the torches and pitchforks are out en masse. See, there's no doubt the increases are large -- $20 a year more at minimum is nothing to sneeze at -- but it's also important to assess what the service was when it launched in 2010 at $50, and what it's become today at $80 and above. Now's a better time than ever to truly assess what you even get out of PS+ to begin with; the answers people arrive at

en

242:12

#269 | Second Screen Experiments

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/08/28

The long-awaited Project Q is officially called PlayStation Portal, and the reaction to it has been surprisingly divisive. Priced at $200 and intended purely as a remote play option for PS5, some potential players see obvious use cases while others think this entire initiative is a waste of time and money. Here on Sacred, we have three different opinions to present you with about the future of Portal, and why it might be a mightier machine than some think. Plus: Sony announces new high-end audio

en

234:46

#268 | Baldur's Great

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/08/21

In early September, prominent CRPG Baldur's Gate III migrates from PC to PlayStation 5, and it sounds like it may just be what the doctor ordered. A deep role-playing experience chock-full of choice and consequence -- and layered with a thick patina of polish -- could potentially sell millions of copies on PS5. Will the critically acclaimed, purportedly amazing experience successfully catapult from computer to console? And should we expect it to stem the tide until Spider-Man 2 arrives? Other items

en

281:14

#267 | Funny Money

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/08/14

Is PlayStation doing well? It's easy to answer "yes" after reading Sony's recent quarterly financial reports, which shows exploding levels of revenue, with a lower-than-expected profit margin scaring markets (even as the Japanese behemoth remains in the black). Then again, that something as relatively cheap as Bungie's acquisition could in part affect the firm's wider earnings is a sign that Sony simply isn't on the level of its competition when it comes to purchasing power, and thus it needs to be

en

264:37

#266 | Mysteries of the Universe

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/08/07

On this week's episode of Sacred Symbols, we delve into a series of perplexing and puzzling enigmas. Will Helldivers launch in October, as rumors indicate? Could PS5's new firmware update allow desperate husbands to dodge the ire of their angry wives? Should Anita Sarkeesian's sunsetting Feminist Frequency brand hold a positive legacy in our industry? Why is EA bringing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor backwards to PS4 in the year of our lord 2023? All of that, plus more news and a series of listener

en

273:59

#265 | Total Mindshare

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/07/31

At 40 million units sold after 32 months, PlayStation 5 is only half-a-quarter behind PS4's prodigious sales pace. This is a big deal for a console that was launched into a pandemic economy that made it extremely difficult for people to find a machine for nearly two straight years, not to mention afford one, what with eroding purchasing power due to inflation. Now, the question becomes -- with Project Q and a PS5 Pro around the corner -- can PlayStation 5 continue its meteoric sales trend? Plus:

en

222:11

#264 | Modern Lawfare

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/07/24

It looks like we can finally -- finally! -- stop talking about Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, at least on this podcast. That's because PlayStation settled on what it frankly could have always had, namely a 10 year deal for access to Call of Duty that runs into the mid-2030s, keeping the cash-cow franchise on Sony hardware for a long time to come. Is this an ideal situation for Sony? Certainly not. But that's their problem, not ours, and at least we can flip the page to make way for

en

283:39

#263 | Endless Horizons

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/07/17

Sony finds itself in a pickle, or so it seems from the outside. With ever-burgeoning development costs comes the reality that new IP is an increasingly-risky endeavor. The safer and more reliable route, it could be argued, is in doubling-down on what works. And let's be real: Guerrilla-developed Horizon works. The two core games have sold 33 million units combined across PS4, PS5, and PC. The question, though, is how much does Horizon work? Could a good thing become a bad thing through

en

271:29

#262 | Well It's A Dirty Job, But Someone's Gotta Do It

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/07/10

Like a meteor from the sky -- or perhaps a capsule drop from orbit -- Sony second party partner Arrowhead randomly released new information about its upcoming co-op-based third-person shooter Helldivers II, including new gameplay footage. Arcadey, difficult, and sarcastic, Helldivers II aims to recognizably evolve 2015's PS4, PS3, and Vita original, and a 2023 release window has thankfully been reiterated. Let's discuss the promise of killing bugs and fellow humans (intentionally or otherwise) in

en

285:24

#261 | Imagine Accepting the Truth

Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast ·

2023/07/03

Whether Microsoft completes its acquisition of Activision or not, the FTC's legal assault on the company has nonetheless exposed Sony's archrival's strategy for all to see. Xbox's argument is a simple one: Thoroughly outclassed by their competitors with access to orders of magnitude fewer resources over a continuous period of more than two decades, their only way to compete is through brute force. Microsoft isn't wrong for acting like a corporation seeking profit. The bigger question is why anyone

en

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