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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 anything too seriously. New episodes post each and every Monday. To get early access to each episode, join thousands and thousands of your fellow listeners by supporting the show on Patreon at patreon.com/laststandmedia

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Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast

News is admittedly slow as the industry awaits major announcements at the imminent Game Awards. But a specific interview was recently released that still gives us plenty to discuss. The website Eurogamer sat down with ex-PlayStation executive Shawn Layden for a fascinating chat about the present and future of the console space, and he had tons to say. We spend a lot of time dissecting his thoughts on topics ranging from PlayStation 6 and console agnosticism to Sony publishing on Xbox and perhaps the most important issues of all: The cost to develop increasingly long and expensive games that few people even bother to beat. Other news this week includes the shuttering of Ubisoft's beleaguered shooter XDefiant, the announcement of a blatant ripoff of Guerrilla's Horizon series called Light of Motiram, FromSoft's puzzling claim that it's not working on an Elden Ring sequel, and more. Listener inquiries help us round things out, per usual. Is Sony quietly giving PSVR2 a new push? How can Square Enix still be publishing PS1 games? Will Sony's E3 2013 'game sharing video' truly resonate throughout time? When will the audience learn that -- yes, indeed! -- you should definitely listen to our rock-solid relationship advice?

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

0:00:00 - Intro
0:15:43 - Spotify Wrapped
0:32:06 - The chips in the microwave was a red flag
0:38:25 - Breakup advice
0:45:05 - Gooner rankings
0:55:07 - Joker 2
1:04:47 - The PlayStation startup returns
1:22:10 - BBC interview with Hulst and Nishino
1:43:59 - Horizon ripoff Light of Moritam
1:52:56 - Fromsoft on Elden Ring 2
2:01:17 - Xdefiant is shutting down
2:15:58 - Foamstars support ending
2:21:10 - What are we playing?
2:39:56 - Shawn Layden interview
3:41:16 - The famous "game sharing" video
3:52:10 - PSVR2's new push
4:03:07 - Picking a game for friends to play
4:11:18 - Square Enix is printing new PS1 games
4:13:12 - "Global Subscription Optimization Manager"
4:18:51 - "Take care guys"
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#336 | A Kind of Cathedral Business

Geoff Keighley's 'The Game Awards' festivities didn't disappoint this year. Quite the contrary, it was arguably the single strongest showing of new game announcements the industry has seen in seemingly forever, and it was capped-off with what many of us have long awaited: Naughty Dog's new game. For the first time since 2005's Jak X: Combat Racing on PlayStation 2, Sony's crown jewel studio is readying a product that's aligned neither with Uncharted nor The Last of Us. It's called Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, it's about a spacefaring bounty hunter and a mysterious alien planet, and it's coming to PlayStation 5 at an undetermined point in the future. Naturally, we have much to discuss. Other TGA announcements of note include a surprise update for Helldivers 2, Capcom reveals in the form of new games in the Onimusha and Okami series, a brand new multiplayer Elden Ring spin-off called Nightreign, our first look at Borderlands 4 and The Witcher IV, the long-awaited revival of the Turok IP, the first new 2D Ninja Gaiden in more than three decades, and much more. And there's a regular ol' episode of Sacred Symbols underneath all of that, too, focused on the purported leak of Bend Studio's new game, the death of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a serious lawsuit filed against Bungie by a fired executive, final word on long-defunct vaporware PS4 project Wild, and more. We wrap things up with listener inquiries on topics like rumors of an upcoming Steam console, parasocial relationships in the creator space, the ability of dialogue to ruin a perfectly good user experience, and a conundrum surrounding perpetual hiccups and $100 million.

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

0:00:00 - Intro
0:35:57 - Tri Breaker is out now!
0:40:41 - Colin and Charli XCX
0:43:38 - $100 million but hiccups
0:50:04 - PlayStation Wrap-up
1:05:33 - Sony shares are trading higher than any point since 2000
1:07:19 - Thoughts from employees about Sony x Kadokawa
1:14:02 - Ex-Bungie director is suing
1:22:44 - UI designer leaks Bend's next game
1:27:37 - Apple and Sony are partnering on PSVR2 controllers for Apple Vision Pro
1:35:09 - Publishers are worried about their releases around GTAVI
1:37:13 - Suicide Squad support is ending
1:41:39 - What Are We Playing?
2:15:08 - The Game Awards announcements
4:04:44 - New info on Wild
4:12:28 - New PS Plus games
4:15:23 - PSN top games
4:18:16 - Does Steam OS going everywhere affect Sony?
4:34:06 - Too many tutorials
4:41:05 - Our thoughts on parasocial bonds
4:52:25 - Realizing you've changed through media
4:59:36 - Are clips hurting the industry?
5:11:10 - Main Quest vs Side Quests
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#337 | Another Dimension, New Galaxy

The holidays draw ever-nearer, making this our final recording of 2024. (Fear not, though: As tradition dictates, episodes will continue uninterrupted throughout the break, and indeed, everything is already in the can!) Not surprisingly, the news is a little light this time of year, though there are some interesting tidbits to pick up on. For starters, we take a look at two titles shown at The Game Awards that we skipped over last week, in the form of Crimson Desert and Midnight Murder Club, the latter a second party, Sony-published offering. We also delve into Mark Cerny's recent PS5 Pro technical presentation, wade through the (now rectified) drama surrounding Helldivers 2's exciting Killzone crossover, analyze whether the upcoming sci-fi RPG Exodus has the potential to be the true next Mass Effect, and more. But at the end of our show, we replace our typical six questions about random topics with six questions about something more than 50 of you wrote in about on the most recent thread. The topic at hand is obviously Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Naughty Dog's upcoming PS5 exclusive. So many wrote in, in fact, that it felt disingenuous to ignore all of the noise. So instead, let's dive way deeper. What should PlayStation's next move be when it comes to rolling out this new product? Could the game flop on the market, either outright or by Naughty Dog's lofty standards? Do the masses suffer from some combination of Naughty Dog and Neil Druckmann Derangement Syndrome? And what does all of this insanity mean for The Last of Us: Part III... if anything at all?

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

0:00:00 - Intro
0:20:37 - Tri Breaker is out now!
0:33:46 - What gives us the right?
0:36:50 - Changes for LSM in 2025
0:46:09 - Gooning over the landlady
0:54:01 - Jurassic: The Hunted
0:56:00 - Chis = Smeargle
1:01:47 - New Astro Bot level
1:06:54 - Game Awards clarifications
1:15:28 - new Mark Cerny ASMR video
1:20:12 - Helldivers 2 x Killzone is real
1:31:18 - Exodus could be the next Mass Effect?
1:40:09 - Secret Level renewed
1:46:05 - Please don't make FF7 NSFW mods
1:49:06 - More Tales of remasters are coming
1:52:33 - What We're Playing
2:09:50 - Sony has bought an additional 8% of Kadokawa
2:21:18 - Circana November data
2:30:44 - Will Intergalactic flop due to the early reaction?
2:40:36 - Naughty Dog derangement
2:55:24 - Neil Druckmann derangement
3:11:16 - What will Sony's strategy be around the game?
3:20:41 - PlayStation and female characters
3:27:16 - When will we get The Last of Us Part 3?
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#338 | Naughty Dog Derangement Syndrome

The holidays are upon us, and thus it's time to roll out an old Sacred Symbols tradition: Our list of the most remarkable, interesting, confounding, and notable moments in the world of PlayStation for the calendar year. As usual, each of us has chosen five 'moments' -- that's 15 total -- and they all involve the PlayStation ecosystem in some way, some literally and obviously, while others more loosely and casually. So let's chat about Helldivers 2's meteoric success, the collapse of Concord and Firewalk, Xbox's wide-ranging publishing capitulation to Sony, the lead-up to (and launch of) PS5 Pro, the PlayStation brand's uneven 30th anniversary celebration, Sony's decision to publish Horizon on Switch, the furor around Stellar Blade, confirmation of a new PlayStation handheld in the years to come, and much, much more. Happy Holidays; please enjoy.

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#339 | Our Favorite PlayStation Moments of 2024

2024 is officially in the rearview mirror, which can only mean one thing: We're now in the exciting "next year" of video game releases on PlayStation 5 (and 4, too, to an extent). As is tradition here on Sacred Symbols, we cap-off our dueling annual end-of-year shows with a look ahead, each selecting five 2025 releases we're most amped about. This of course allows us to widely chat about 15 exciting upcoming games with only two rules in mind: Selections have to be slated for (or at least conceivably coming in) '25, and they must be on PlayStation hardware. Thus, we touch on just about everything you can imagine, from the biggest AAAs to our darling indies, and so much in between. Please enjoy, and Happy New Year to you and yours!
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#340 | Our Most Anticipated Games of 2025

We're back! 2024 is so last year; it's now time for us to dwell here in 2025... and perhaps even beyond. The holiday season was pretty quiet news-wise, but there were fairly substantial exceptions in the form of two lengthy interviews published by legendary Japanese games publication Famitsu, conducted with both of PlayStation's recently-installed co-CEOs. On the one hand, Hermen Hulst was peppered with questions about Helldivers 2 and Concord, the future of Sony's single-player initiatives, and whether PlayStation fans can expect more games to travel off-platform. On the other hand, Hideaki Nishino was prodded for answers on topics like the future of cloud gaming, the success of PS5 in the wake of PS4, and even when we might see a hypothetical PlayStation 6. Obviously, we're left with much to discuss. Other news of note includes another delay for Assassin's Creed: Shadows, early rumblings of a potential new emulation solution for PS3, compelling evidence of a forthcoming remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a turned-down pitch for Dead Space 4, and much more. Then: Listener inquiries! Why were so many people convinced Black Myth: Wukong was a PS5 console-exclusive title? Is it necessary for a True Yakuza Fan to play all titles in the series? 10 years on, how has Colin enjoyed his decade of media independence? Can we convince one listener not to name his son Simon or Ronan, but Richter instead?

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

Timestamps:
0:00:00 - Intro
0:27:58 - How was our break?
0:52:11 - Ronan or Simon?
0:55:38 - Internet service guy marks territory
1:04:51 - Halo x Doom
1:13:37 - AC Shadows delayed
1:25:19 - PS3 emulation?
1:33:34 - Ex-Platinum game director joins Housemarque
1:38:35 - The Midnight Black collection
1:45:12 - Sony is reviving old IP
1:50:17 - Is an Oblivion remake coming?
2:04:16 - Dead Space 4 denied
2:15:44 - Sega is considering a subscription service
2:23:55 - Stardew Valley keep selling
2:30:57 - What Have We Been Playing?
3:13:22 - Herman Hulst's Interview with Famitsu
3:26:31 - Nishino's Interview
3:42:39 - Sony at CES
3:54:37 - New PS Plus games
4:00:49 - How to get into Yakuza
4:08:16 - Should we comment on other's commentary?
4:17:19 - Black Myth Wukong's exclusivity myth debunked
4:19:12 - Mouthwashing's trophies
4:22:20 - Reflections on Kinda Funny
4:26:25 - Does LSM reimburse game purchases
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#341 | The Mystery of What's to Come

We had already finished this recording when surprising news broke in the world of PlayStation: Sony has cancelled two of its upcoming, unannounced games. And -- would you believe it? -- they were both live service titles, including a God of War spin-off. The really unfortunate news, however, is who was making these titles: Bend and Bluepoint, two smaller AAA teams that typically work on a single project at a time, thus wasting years of development, as well as time and resources that can never be recovered. What in the world is going on with PlayStation Studios, and how did the person who helmed the first party family during such a tumultuous period of greenlights and plug-pulling ascend to the top of PlayStation itself? It's time to start asking some really hard questions. Other news this week includes substantial rumors of more Xbox content en route to PlayStation which, if true, will make Microsoft the single most-prolific producer of content for a platform that was once its arch-rival, but no longer. Also: Reactions to the first Until Dawn film trailer, a surprising end to Rocksteady's Suicide Squad game, accolades for an exceptional-looking upcoming vampire RPG called The Blood of Dawnwalker, tantalizing news about Bungie's in-development Smash Bros.-inspired MOBA, and more. We wrap up our episode (as we always do) with listener inquiries. Now that Nintendo's Switch 2 has been revealed, what are our preliminary thoughts? Is 2025 the year we finally give PSVR2 the respect it deserves? Why is it so hard to make swimming control well? Is it just a weird coincidence that SEGA renewed its Ecco the Dolphin trademark on September 11, 2001, or is there something deeper at play?

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.

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

Timestamps:
0:00:00 - Intro
0:21:27 - Sacred car collision
0:25:01 - Ranking LSM autism
0:28:06 - Do Colin and Chris drink coffee?
0:47:45 - Phil Summers Mega Man book
0:49:52 - Sony and SoCal studios are donating to the wildfire recovery
0:51:47 - Until Dawn movie
1:00:11 - Rocksteady ends Suicide Squad
1:05:09 - The Blood of Dawnwalker
1:11:35 - Ubisoft + Tencent?
1:18:59 - Square Enix releases a Group Customer Harassment policy
1:23:27 - Ecco the Dolphin trademark
1:29:02 - Elden Ring Nightreign network test registration is up
1:30:28 - Lunar Remastered has a date
1:33:14 - What are we playing?
1:54:54 - Sony has shut down two live service projects
2:19:14 - More Xbox games on PlayStation
2:43:49 - Bungie's Gummy Bears
2:57:35 - New PS Plus Extra and Premium games
3:05:41 - Top downloads on PSN for December
3:09:52 - Our thoughts on Switch 2
3:30:35 - PSVR2 recommendations
3:36:29 - Gamifying our life
3:45:11 - Swimming in games
3:50:41 - PS4 living on
3:53:33 - Prestige system for platinums
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#342 | We've Painted A Picture, Now We're Drowning in Paint

Insomniac Games' co-founder Ted Price is retiring from the company after a storied 30 year career, but it's what he's leaving behind in his stead that's truly curious: A three-person CEO grouping, virtually unheard of in the corporate world, that hopes to leverage the unique skills of each person. When taken into account with PlayStation's new co-CEO structure, it makes us wonder if Sony seeks to spread the field instead of focus decision-making and responsibility on a single person. Is that such a good idea? We discuss. Meanwhile, Xbox had an exceptional press conference, and as Xbox games are now PlayStation games, we have a few titles of import to go over, including the reveal of the Microsoft-published Ninja Gaiden 4 and release dates for both Doom: The Dark Ages and third party RPG Clair Obscur. Other news this week includes chatter of a $100 pricetag for Grand Theft Auto VI, impressive new gameplay footage for Phantom Blade Zero, the commercial bombing of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and more. We then wrap up with six inquiries from the audience, as is our tradition. Could tariffs on Mexico drive physical game prices higher? Are there more game cancellations than ever, or simply more transparency in the process? Did Xbox miss an opportunity to strike at a vulnerable and underperforming PlayStation? Is Colin over-reliant on email, rendering him an exceptionally old man?

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

Timestamps:
0:00:00 - Intro
0:15:28 - Staying strong during a breakup
0:23:51 - Colin and email
0:42:15 - Winnie the Pooh style forever sleep
0:53:36 - Colin's thesaurus
0:56:32 - Dustin at the symphony
1:00:53 - GTA VI costing $100?
1:24:17 - Phantom Blade Zero gameplay
1:31:00 - New Astro Bot content
1:33:42 - Dragon Age bombed
1:48:46 - Resident Evil 6 rated for Xbox
1:53:44 - Silent Hill F ESRB rating
1:57:35 - Balatro sells over 5 million
2:00:35 - Civ 7 has gone gold
2:02:11 - What Are We Playing?
2:31:48 - Xbox Developer Direct
2:57:35 - Ted Price is retiring
3:20:07 - New sales data
3:24:16 - Tariff check
3:28:35 - Game cancelations
3:34:27 - Do kids care about PlayStation?
3:41:50 - Is Sony relieved at the state of Xbox?
3:46:01 - "DEI-Woke" games selling softer
4:00:33 - Was Jim Ryan horrible for PlayStation?
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#343 | Codename Trinity

Just last year, Sony had grand designs of a new PlayStation leadership structure executing on an exciting multi-pronged strategy, but only three fiscal quarters later, the plan has come undone. Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst were bestowed co-CEO roles -- the former looking after hardware and services, the latter after software -- but now, Nishino will hold the CEO role alone, with Hulst demoted and now reporting directly to him. While Sony Corporation itself made some other changes as well, including installing Hiroki Totoki as the larger entity's CEO, changes to PlayStation's executive structure so soon after alterations were first made says something rather clear: Bad choices were made, and rectifying them as quickly as possible is the best idea. We discuss. Other news this week includes Xbox quickly becoming PlayStation's biggest publisher, with yet another Xbox game -- Forza Horizon 5 -- en route to PS5, rumblings of new films for Resident Evil and Beyond: Two Souls, PlayStation 5 continuing to outsell the PS4 in the US when adjusted for time, layoffs at BioWare following Dragon Age's tumultuous end, MLB: The Show 25 skipping PS4 for the first time since the console launched, and more. Listener inquiries wrap things up. Is NCSoft's Horizon MMO cancelled? How does a game's budget actually get determined? Should future Dragon Quest games abandon Akira Toriyama's art style? Will Colin's Herman Miller chair ever arrive?

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

Timestamps:
0:00:00 - Intro
0:10:14 - Gooneral
0:25:29 - Punching Up rising up
0:27:14 - Herman-Miller woes
0:30:13 - Raymond
0:40:52 - PS5 is outselling PS4, time-adjusted
0:52:26 - PSN logins on PC are now optional for single player games
0:59:23 - 30th Anniversary themes are gone (but coming back)
1:21:16 - MLB The Show 25 coming on Match 18
1:35:38 - Spider-Man 2 is out now on PC
1:43:51 - BioWare downsizes
1:56:44 - Helldivers 2's director is taking a sabbatical
2:04:44 - Silent Hill 2 Remake surpasses two million copies sold
2:05:03 - Sega renews the trademark for Skies of Arcadia
2:09:00 - Berserk Boy
2:11:44 - What Are We Playing?
2:49:50 - Shakeup in Sony's leadership
3:10:58 - Xbox is the biggest publisher on PlayStation
3:33:13 - PlayStation Productions news
3:44:16 - New PS Plus games
3:50:12 - Horizon MMO canceled?
3:53:09 - Difficulty and trophies
3:59:43 - Best tip for aspiring journalists
4:19:05 - Why does game production cost so much?
4:23:22 - Should Dragon Quest's art style change with Toriyama's passing?
4:27:40 - What is the golden age of gaming?
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#344 | Illusion Never Changed Into Something Real

When truly great games are delivered, players tend to respond. The industry's newest sales success is the long-awaited Kingdom Come: Deliverance sequel, which immediately sold a million copies upon release. But it's hardly alone. And the rest of this long year is already shaping up to be something special, with Metal Gear Solid Delta's release date leaking, Death Stranding 2's newest trailer drawing nearer, and EA's Battlefield finally toying with a real comeback. Other news this week includes the potential of a discless PlayStation 6, the arrival of more Xbox games on PS5 in the form of Age of Empires and Age of Mythology, Capcom's announcement of a port of PS2's Onimusha 2 for PlayStation 4, and more. Let's then round things out with listener inquiries, as is our tradition. What are our thoughts on the return of games media brand Rooster Teeth? Is Sony putting its own games on sale too quickly and too steeply, to its own detriment? Did EA executives really claim Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed because it wasn't live service? Will Colin ever recover from tendinitis, or are his weightlifting days over?

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

Timestamps:
0:00:00 - Intro
0:23:28 - Side Quest is back!
0:29:11 - Colin's tendinitis
0:32:14 - George's bush
0:48:41 - Career switching advice
0:57:39 - Why is Abby tiny?
1:06:19 - Shawn Layden thinks PlayStation will keep physical for PS6
1:12:25 - Metal Gear Solid Delta release date leaked
1:17:31 - Death Stranding 2 is rated in South Korea
1:21:42 - KCD2 sells one million in one day
1:27:25 - New Battlefield game by early 2026
1:34:43 - MultiVersus is going offline
1:42:13 - Devil May Cry remake coming?
1:49:04 - Prince of Persia The Lost Crown sold 1.3 million copies
1:50:02 - Konami churned $500 million in profit over 9 months
1:51:06 - Sony integrates SN Systems
1:52:11 - What Are We Playing?
2:31:06 - Age of Mythology is coming to PS5
2:38:03 - Onimusha 2 is being remastered
2:46:00 - Rooster Teeth's return
2:57:37 - Should PlayStation stop putting their games on sale?
3:06:17 - Will Sony stop releasing on PC?
3:13:42 - Sony's live service push concerning for the industry?
3:16:28 - Is EA crazy?
3:23:38 - Is new IP overvalued?
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#345 | You Keep It Copacetic

We already know PlayStation 5 was primed to provide a technological quantum leap to AAA projects, but what it'll be capable of in its first round of games is fairly surprising. Sony-owned Insomniac has revealed that its launch game -- the kinetic Spider-Man: Miles Morales -- can run at 60 frames-per-second in 4K resolution, which is virtually unheard of on current-gen consoles. But nothing is free, so at what technical cost are such results achieved? Let's chat about it. Plus: Ubisoft escalates next-gen's pricing wars, Madden NFL 21 says goodbye to the Washington Redskins, NHL 21 is staying on PS4 (for now), Final Fantasy VII Remake: Part II's mysterious development situation remains as murky as ever, and much more. Then, listener inquiries! How do we balance gaming as a hobby with our real-life relationships? Will standalone expansions become more common as development costs rise? Do Sony's outspoken studio heads help or hurt their respective brands? If a person doesn't return a shopping cart after use, should they go to prison?

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#108: Peak Performance

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