Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast

God of War is a big PlayStation franchise, and word is it's about to make the leap to the small screen. As in, a TV show, apparently on Amazon Prime, led by the same minds that helped The Expanse and The Wheel of Time make the leap from page to moving image. But can God of War actually work as a serial? We discuss. Plus: Gaming news galore! Returnal is getting free DLC that adds co-op and an endle...

The eyes of the world are on Eastern Europe, where the Russian invasion of Ukraine has unsettled the post-World War II order. Perhaps not surprisingly, external forces in the west are bringing their economic might to bear to help halt the senseless violence. While Ukrainian politicians ask the gaming industry to do more, some have already started to do what they can. EA, for instance, has removed...

It's been five years since Horizon: Zero Dawn launched, and finally, we have its sequel. Forbidden West has arrived on PS5 and PS4, and it's awesome. We have a lot to say about it, so we dedicate over an hour to talking about Guerrilla's new open-world action-RPG in spoiler-free terms. But of course, we can't ignore the news. Fresh Project Spartacus rumors suggest a three-tiered subscription that...

It seems like PlayStation has taken some body blows recently, but stark reality paints a different picture. Sales data shows PlayStation 5 is steadily outselling Xbox Series X|S, while games like the original Horizon and Miles Morales are doing Nintendo first party-level numbers, something its primary competition could only dream of. Heck, with Cyberpunk 2077 sneakily arriving on PlayStation 5 in...

Microsoft's pending purchase of Activision has turned the industry upside down for weeks, but now we're not so sure it deserves too much worry, at least not for the PlayStation fanbase. In anticipation of regulatory concerns, Microsoft has explicitly and repeatedly ensured that PlayStation (and Nintendo?!) will receive plenty of Activision-Blizzard games well after already-inked deals have lapsed....

When it comes to mergers and acquisitions, it appears Sony is willing to play along: It's $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie is proof. Thing is, this marriage is a bit different for the brand. Bungie will remain outside of PlayStation Studios' publishing hierarchy and remain both independent and multiplatform. However, Sony isn't done yet. Far from it. It's as ominous as it sounds, and we dedicate...

Disney couldn't care less whether or not you want more Star Wars, because you are, nevertheless, getting more. In our realm, three new Star Wars games have been revealed -- one we kinda knew about, two we certainly didn't -- but what makes things interesting is that they're all coming from the same source: EA-owned Respawn, the team behind Titanfall and Apex Legends. What's with this massive inves...

Microsoft -- as it's wont to do -- just went and spent a bunch of money on a publisher. But this is no ordinary publisher or forgettable amount of money: By buying Activision-Blizzard for a record $68.7 billion, Xbox now controls some of the industry's most vital IP and studios, including the king of them all, Call of Duty, and its constellation of developers, including Infinity Ward and Treyarch....

First party rumors are growing. With a Twisted Metal revival unannounced (but very much in-development) comes word that it's now an internal project under the control of Firesprite. Meanwhile, the candor ex-Bend Studio leads displayed in a conversation with David Jaffe continue to reverberate, bringing to light the possibility of a Resistance revival, or something new in the world of Syphon Filter...

This week's episode of Sacred Symbols is full of acronym soup. Let's start with the biggest news: PSVR2. While Sony revealed PlayStation VR's successor last year, we finally have new information, though -- frustratingly -- we still lack a release date or price. Along with fresh PSVR2 details comes a new game, too, something from the first party. It's called Horizon: Call of the Mountain, and we're...

It's time for us to gather 'round the digital fire and talk about what's to come. We -- the three Sacred Symbols Boys -- each selected five games, confirmed for 2022 release on PlayStation 4 and/or PlayStation 5, that we're most excited to get our hands on. We round out our choices with your own, of course, giving us more than two dozen exciting titles to opine about as we wait for them to arrive...

The last 12 months have been contentious in the real world, and here in our digital escape, you could say that things have been equally rocky, albeit for wildly different reasons. While perhaps not the strongest year for new releases, 2021 still easily contends as one of the most interesting years in recent memory when it comes to the gaming industry itself, and PlayStation in particular. From PSV...

What's that there? In the dark? That familiar setup can only mean one thing: Splinter Cell is returning. In the form of a remake of the 2002 original, in fact. Questions remain, however. Is Ubisoft Toronto the studio that should be undertaking this project? Should a Splinter Cell remake be undertaken at all? We discuss. Even more Chris-centric news occurred this week, too, as rumors of Bully 2 fro...

Have the Game Awards officially lost their charm? For as likable as Geoff Keighley is, this year's offering was a gratuitously advertisorial affair, and we simply have to call it like it is. What's the purpose of holding an audience captive for three hours, only to bombard them with commercial after commercial... other than bean-counting, of course? Still, through it all, it was still cool to see...

This is a big episode of Sacred Symbols, so big that we've done the unprecedented: We've gone back and edited a half-day old podcast to incorporate some smashing news: Sony is indeed planning a rival to Xbox's Game Pass. It's codenamed Spartacus, and details are scarce, but we've obviously got to discuss what we know so far. Likewise, we have brand-new information about the upcoming BioShock game...

What happened to Electronic Arts-owned studio BioWare? Once the crown jewel of EA's family of devs, BioWare has experienced nearly a decade of consistent struggle, and now it's been hit with yet another punch: The loss of Dragon Age's Creative Director, seemingly on not-great terms, injuring a game that's already been in development for some six years. Needless to say, BioWare is a shadow of its f...

Sometimes, very easy things turn out to be very hard for no apparent reason. Apparently, this mantra rings true for Rockstar, which released its acclaimed PlayStation 2 trilogy of Grand Theft Auto games on PS4 and PS5 in... well... a pretty shocking state. It's a big story (and a damn shame), and we discuss it in-depth. Rockstar ain't the only one hurting, though. Activision isn't only beleaguered...

Bad news: Sony isn't going to be able to make as many PlayStation 5 consoles as it was hoping, at least in the short term. What does that mean for you? It means that, if you're still on the hunt for a console, you may want to get used to the idea of ponying up for a black market unit or settle in for a long and painful winter. We discuss. Plus: Gaming engine Unity has made a substantial acquisitio...

We have some awesome news for long-time PlayStation fans: The Mother of Uncharted, Amy Hennig, is finally returning with something new. Seriously. And it's just in the nick of time, since it's been a staggering 10 years since Uncharted 3 launched on PS3, which was her last brainchild. Heck, it's been nearly eight years since she left Naughty Dog! So it's great to know what she's working on next, b...

While there's no doubt Microsoft's Xbox Series X is doing great, there's also no doubt that Sony's PlayStation 5 is doing even better. Markedly so. Microsoft stubbornly refuses to publicly state how many consoles it has sold, but we now know that Sony has surpassed 13 million in less than a year, almost certainly beginning to put some distance between PS5 and XSX. Let's discuss what these new sale...

If you listen to this show (and we know that you do), you would have known months ago that God of War was coming to PC, because we told you it was. Well, if you didn't believe us, it is indeed true: 2018's God of War is indeed PC-bound, and it has some players in their feelings... and not in a good way. Is it time for PlayStation's audience to embrace the inevitable? Or will stragglers hold on for...

Square Enix-owned studio Eidos is running a little experiment on behalf of the industry-at-large: Its teams are now working four days a week, for 32 hours, with Fridays off. In a line of work absolutely demanding of your time, that a AAA publisher and well-respected studio are taking the initiative to do things differently is an awesome sign, though it's unclear if such a life/work balance is even...

It's not 1995 anymore, or 2000, or 2006, or even 2013. During those years -- when PSone through PS4 launched in the west -- PlayStation's success revolved around what it itself can do. Its own system, its own studios, its own architecture. But in 2021? Things are changing. Sony's recent acquisition of Nixxes was all of the evidence you needed of the shifting sands, but recent interviews from ex-Pl...

The inevitable has happened: Bluepoint Games has officially joined PlayStation Studios as its 16th team. You may recall that this news kinda-sorta leaked months ago, and either way, it's the most obvious acquisition Sony could have possibly made, so we're not exactly shocked. Yet, there's much to say, because it seems like Bluepoint may be breaking the mold when it comes to what they're best known...

God Almighty, it's finally happened: The long-rumored (and much-leaked) Castlevania Advanced Collection is indeed coming to PlayStation 4. Actually, it's available right now, bringing along with it some wondrous vampiric action out of the clear blue sky (or dark night). Surprise! Then, in another piece of news that can only be described as For Colin, Square Enix randomly revealed a remake of 1991'...