Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast

Xbox's pursuit of Activision Blizzard reached a new crescendo in recent days, as Microsoft President Brad Smith gave both private and public presentations to the European Commission about the virtues of the proposed deal. In its persistent recalcitrance and total unwillingness to get out of the way (particularly when it comes to Call of Duty's availability on PlayStation), Sony's strategy of silen...

Sony has never so much as acknowledged the existence of the British team known as Ballistic Moon, but that hasn't stopped sleuths from figuring out as far back as last summer that they're working on a PlayStation exclusive called Project Bates. But in recent days, something interesting happened: Sony kinda-sorta referred to Ballistic Moon as a first party team in a job listing, which they later am...

The brand-new Harry Potter adventure Hogwarts Legacy will very easily go down as one of 2023's best-sellers, a testament to its high quality and faithful treatment of the so-called Wizarding World. But its success is also a triumph for reason and truth, and a major defeat for the outrage machine that tried to destroy it via a distorted game of telephone. Nestled within the maelstrom is nonetheless...

In only about 10 weeks on the market, God of War: Ragnarok has grossed (give or take) around $750 million. At 11 million units sold and counting, it's a stark reminder that -- yes indeed! -- people will buy games, buy them at a high price point, and buy them in great quantities. All that's necessary is for that product to be special. Having already made back Ragnarok's development and marketing co...

Think back a ways, to the lead-up to The Last of Us' launch on PlayStation 3. There wasn't one name -- but two! -- oft-invoked in media: Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley. The duo's work was well-established in the Uncharted series, and they would later rescue Uncharted 4 from development tribulations as a team. But the team split apart, and these days, Druckmann is the focal point of PlayStation's...

Long-percolating rumors have been confirmed: Housemarque's wonderful third-person PS5 shooter Returnal is headed to PC, and you're going to need a beefy rig to enjoy all it has to offer. But not all is well in the stars. Krafton's The Callisto Protocol, released in December to middling reviews, was also met with soft sales. Somehow, the publisher spent something like $160 million over three years...

Not too long ago, Ubisoft was one of the most powerful publishing entities in all of video games. Today, it's a beleaguered entity haunted by an absurdly high headcount and a development pipeline ill-suited for modern trends. The result has been an in-progress collapse notable enough to warrant an extensive update from the company itself, alongside a flurry of cancelled projects and ominous adjust...

It's easy enough to forget (especially these days) that Sony is, first and foremost, an electronics company. So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that the company showed up to CES not only to show off its upcoming PlayStation VR2, but also something brand new: A fresh controller codenamed Project Leonardo, one designed with maximum accessibility in mind. By leveraging the power of tech, video game...

2022 is but a fleeting memory. Thus, as the calendar turns over, we thought it would be best to look ahead. As is our tradition, it's time for Sacred Symbols to talk about our most-anticipated games of the next 12 months. 2023 is shaping up to be a far, far stronger year than 2022, an especially bold proclamation considering we know virtually nothing about what's coming from either first or second...

It's time once more for our annual Sacred Symbols tradition: Recounting and discussing the most memorable and interesting moments from the last 12 months of PlayStation. The reality is, this year was quiet on the first and second party front, at least when it comes to news (the games were dope, as always). But much happened that's worth going over again: Sony's acquisition of Bungie, Haven's poten...

Word of a third core The Last of Us game emanates from a reliable film industry-based source. If true, The Last of Us: Part III is one of at least two games in-development at Naughty Dog, news that is being met with equal parts excitement and disappointment. With other happenings pointing towards a God of War TV show at Amazon, and with so much of Sony's strategy seemingly relying on PlayStation's...

There's little doubt that this year's Video Game Awards was the strongest industry showcase in a long time, potentially in several years. Geoff Keighley did a great job, and he deserves credit as a great ambassador for our medium. But even more important than the VGAs, the winners, and the pomp and circumstance were the game reveals. PlayStation players are going to be eating very, very well in th...

Capcom's Monster Hunter is a years-long smash hit, but it really hit its stride on PS4 with Monster Hunter World, Capcom's best-selling game ever. So it was mysterious when Monster Hunter Rise was launched on Switch (and later PC), but never on PlayStation. Rumor has it that's all about to change. Rise is apparently due for PS4 and PS5 very soon -- in perhaps a month and a half -- and with it come...

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God of War: Ragnarok has finally arrived, and with it comes opinions. A whole slate of them. The three of us have sat with the newest PlayStation 5 smash-hit for varying amounts of time, and we come away with equally-varying opinions that we're eager to share, expand upon, and challenge. Needless to say, we spend a whole lot of time talking about the game this week, so buckle-in. We also delve int...

We really hope you like the Horizon series, because a new rumor from a reliably-placed source indicates that much, much more of it is coming. There are purportedly five Horizon projects in the works: Call of the Mountain on PSVR2, some sort of Zero Dawn remake for PS5, the inevitable third game in the core trilogy, a Netflix series, and now an MMORPG from South Korean firm NCSoft. Meanwhile, a jou...

It's hard to stop a moving train, and when big corporations make meaningful decisions, the results occur over years, not days, weeks, or months. It's clear now that Sony's PSVR2 is stuck between a rock and a hard place -- there's simply no way Sony could have forecasted the last two and a half years of human history when this thing was being workshopped and greenlit -- and with a high price, a bad...

For two decades, Sony's London Studio has been known almost exclusively for its casual fare, usually driven by a peripheral, whether it's a camera, microphone, or even Move. But a recent conversation the team's two co-leads conducted with an industry publication indicates definitively that recent rumors were true: London Studio is pursuing a more hardcore course, specifically with an online co-op...

 Konami sure knows how to make someone wait. After literally years of rumors and build-up, the long-dormant Japanese publisher spilled the beans about its plans for Silent Hill, its once-popular survival horror series. It turns out three games are coming -- a new entry, a remake, and something smaller -- and, well, the choice of devs has some people puzzled. Bloober Team and Neobards Entertainment...

As we enter the season of spookiness, we're left wondering about the scariest possibility: Continuing PlayStation 5 scarcity. But there's good news emerging, at least if recent reports are to be believed. It appears Sony is readying to gear-up PS5 production in ways so dramatic that they plan on selling more units in one year than consoles like GameCube and the original Xbox did in their entire re...

The Last of Us: Part I is one thing, but 'remaking' Horizon? Five years and change after it came out? Give us a break. Tantalizing rumors (seemingly confirmed by reliable sources) indicate Sony is indeed endeavoring to deliver a Horizon: Zero Dawn remake of some sort, a game that first came to PS4 in 2017 and PC in 2020. What level or kind of remake? It's unclear. But something akin to Naughty Dog...

As promised, publisher Electronic Arts has revealed its all-new, so-called 'hunting' game. It's called Wild Hearts, and it's coming by way of Koei Tecmo-owned developer Omega Force very soon: It hits PlayStation 5 in February. This is a fun move to analyze, an aggressive maneuver from EA that encroaches entirely on an unexpected rival's turf. Naturally, we delve-in. Plus: The totalitarian Saudi go...

Life is full of choices. And a fundamental choice is what you do for a living and who you work for. So it was disappointing to see Shawn Layden -- a champion of PlayStation's first party games for a run of very good years -- choosing to sign with Tencent as a Special Advisor. As an ex-Fortune 500 executive, Layden is already set for life, and with a reputation and track record like his, he can wor...

Just when you thought mega-publisher Ubisoft finally 'got it' when it came to Assassin's Creed, they went ahead and simultaneously announced three brand-new AC games for console. This is of course a change from their more recent strategy of treating this particular franchise with more care; they now seem fine with potentially running it back into the ground. What's going on at Ubisoft? And what do...

It's clear: PlayStation's problems with Microsoft's in-motion purchase of Activision-Blizzard run deep. The financial implications are enormous, of course, but in going public with his dismay in potentially losing Call of Duty on PlayStation platforms beginning in 2028, CEO Jim Ryan illustrates Sony's concern is material enough that it's willing to take a PR beating to make its point. Our theory?...