Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast

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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices