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Sacred Symbols, Episode 40: Kaz Hirai Says Goodbye (Patreon)

Published:
2019-04-02 16:00:03
Imported:
2022-01

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Content

Like virtually any gigantic multinational corporation, Sony has seen its share of ups and downs. Its most recent upswing, however, was overseen by Kaz Hirai, who -- from 2012 to 2018 -- served as Sony's CEO after nearly two decades cutting his teeth on the PlayStation brand. Now, he's on the verge of retirement, and so it's time for us to say goodbye. But fear not, for there's plenty of video game news this week, too. Borderlands 3 is real (shocking, we know), Dreams' Early Access is right around the corner, DriveClub is driving off a cliff, and a prominent Japanese developer left his studio over concerns of censorship. As always, we round out things with your queries, touching on topics ranging from Trophies on other hardware and remastered soundtracks to the status of Ready at Dawn and our lack of Mortal Kombat 11 coverage. Oh, and one listener makes a bet with Chris, and PlayStation 5 is involved. How intriguing!

Timestamps:

0:00:17 - Intro.
0:04:29 - We can all agree:  April Fools' Day is terrible.
0:06:59 - A Bloodborne Let's Play is coming in hot.
0:10:33 - Some of the audience took umbrage with Colin's From Software discussion last week. Let's talk.
0:12:52 - An update on merch.
0:14:38 - One listener challenges Chris in regard to the CTR Platinum. Chris counter-challenges.
0:16:28 - What games are we playing?
0:27:28 - Kaz Hirai is officially retiring from Sony.
0:29:13 - PSVR hits a new sales milestone.
0:34:55 - Sony has revealed PlayStation Plus' two free games for April.
0:36:06 - DriveClub is being relisted from PSN later this year; servers being turned off in 2020.
0:40:43 - Borderlands 3 is real, Borderlands: GotY edition is PS4-bound, and Borderlands 2 PSVR is getting all DLC for free.
0:45:48 - Dreams' Early Access has a release date, and is coming in hot.
0:47:42 - Wolfenstein: Youngblood gets a release date.
0:50:11 - Kenichiro Takaki quits Japanese developer Marvelous, citing increasing issues with censorship.
0:56:23 - EA suffers layoffs in its publishing and marketing departments.
0:57:55 - Sony will now refund digital purchases from PSN under very specific circumstances.
0:58:33 - A Divinity II spinoff called Divinity: Fallen Heroes is (likely) coming to PS4.
0:59:09 - Ubisoft confirms its E3 2019 press conference; Bethesda notes TES6 and Starfield won't be at theirs.
1:03:38 - Minor game announcements and release date information.
1:05:53 - This week's new releases for PS4, PS Vita, and PSVR.
1:09:04 - Would we play more non-PlayStation hardware if we were able to earn Trophies?
1:11:15 - Is PlayStation beginning to drop the ball when it comes to PlayStation games?
1:14:18 - When a game is remade or remastered, how important is nailing the soundtrack?
1:16:10 - Are we entering an era of the "Minimal Viable Product" when it comes to games?
1:18:17 - What has Ready at Dawn been up to?
1:21:29 - How come we don't talk about Mortal Kombat 11 very much?
1:24:13 - Sony manufactured new PS2s for 13 years. Is there any chance the same thing will happen with PS4?
1:29:20 - Outro.

Files

Comments

Keith W

April Fools’ Day is terrible.

Anonymous

Wow... Sounds like Colin might be scared of Kingdom Hearts 😂 Congrats on the big month for CLS 👍 Looking forward to both games.

four24twenty

Does "fan service" mean boobs?

Zack E

I love when Colin tells Chris that the listener that might win the PS5 lives overseas lol Chris is doing nothing but playing CTR that week

Haydyn

Nintendo not having achievements has always rubbed me the wrong way. We constantly see comments about Sony being boneheaded and not listening. Nintendo refusing to have an achievement system is one of the most boneheaded things I've ever encountered. I have achievements on my Audible account for books but not my Nintendo console.

Jimmy Champane

Great episode, dudes! I've got two comments this week. 1. The best way I've figured out to record headphone audio so it doesn't bleed on PS4 is to plug an AUX cord into the monitor you're playing on. Most PC monitors and TVs have headphone jacks and they don't screw with capture cards. 2. Something I think Bethesda will talk about at their press conference is the Wastelanders season for Fallout 76. It's going to include a new main quest and new features. They've also teased that it'll change the game in a big way and people are speculating that they'll be adding in human NPC's. I'm one of the few who still plays 76 and with how well they've handled DLC over the past month, I'm stoked to see what's next.

Trent Miller

Unpopular opinion: I thought The Order was a pretty decent game. I loved the world, I thought the story was pretty good, and I thought it looked fantastic. Granted I did get the game for like $15. I think a $60 price point is a little steep for that game and it was very short but nonetheless I think it was a better game than a lot of people give it credit for. I’d love to see a sequel to it.

WalknTalknStvnHawkn

On the subject of feeling emotion in a game: 1) I'll admit to "ugly-crying" at the end of Detroit: Become Human when I lost Alice. That emotion hit me even harder when I realized that it was my fault and had previously vowed to play it just once to keep my experience and lasting memory of the game authentic. 2) I did tear up during the last mission in RDR2. Knowing what the outcome would obviously be at that time and genuinely feeling like I had lost a friend due to the amount of time we get to spend with Arthur, watching him transform from a selfish gunslinger to a man willing to die for a friend. 3) Given that The Division 2 is so much more punishing, my team and I were so anxious about going into the DZ, we literally put off the DZ mission for 3 days because we refused to go in alone, waiting for another teammate to jump online before we finally went did. Best podcast out there in my opinion! Keep up the great work!!!!

Kenneth Oms

My favorite part of this episode is hearing Colin say "tecmo koei" it just rolls off the tongue and sounds cool.

Barrett Boswell

Great Episode. Looking forward to Borderlands 3 and experiencing their unique humor and characters. Just caught up on the PS2 Knockback episode, I'll definitely go to the mat for the PS2 launch games of Armored Core 2 and Smuggler's Run. Compared to other console launch lineups, l'm sure the PS2 overall was weaker but those two PS2 games I had so much fun with.

Murray. M

I think in regard to the censorship stuff, I think you'll find there is a growing market for it on the Nintendo Switch funnily enough. Sony is censoring way more than Nintendo nowadays. I would suspect that a console audience for that type of game would move to another console instead of a pc. Great podcast as always :)

David Kramme

Hey guys great episode, Divinity : Fallen Heroes is amazing news, no studio comes close to Larian save Projekt Red as building top tier RPG's, I bought Divinity 2 Original Sin for PC and PS4 because they deserve all the praise and money they've been receiving, hope you guys give this a shot if it does indeed make it to consoles, and Colin I know how you feel about the density of Witcher 3 so Divinity would probably kill you, highlight of my week keep up the great work.

Brandon Soto

VR is a $400 gimmick, and that’s all it comes down to imo. Not enough AAA games to catch people’s interest either.

LastStandMedia
>>21401206

The game is certainly "better" at a much lower price point, I'd agree. Either way, I too would like a sequel.

LastStandMedia
>>21406175

Well, if you're a Sony competitor and you see Sony dropping the ball and alienating its customers, well... =)

LastStandMedia
>>21406453

Glad you're stoked about it! I originally wrote that announcement into the wrap-up, but it seemed kinda unfair to it. =)

Daniel Schiffer

LOL. I love the off-camera rapport you have with Dustin. Reminds me of popular YouTubers (pewdiepie) who have a funny relationship with there editor (Brad).

There’s No I in LLC

Shall-O-Fac- Ner!! Also Mortal kombat has always been silly. Babalities

David Graham

A typically excellent episode, my good sir.

Nate McKinney

The notion that Evil Within 3 could show up at E3 this year hadn't even occurred to me. But it makes perfect sense. A new game from Tango would be really the only thing they could surprise us with. I don't know how well Evil Within 2 sold, but I hope it happens. I fucking loved both of those games.

Brett Carlson

I really dont see your angle on Dreams/Days Gone being so close together. Those two games could not have any more wildly different audiences. The overlap I would guess is less then 5 %. On top of that it is not a "launch" but the opening for Early Access, so it is not like 2 exclusives are launching side by side. DREAMS is for the earliest of the early adopters and as far as marketing Days Gone has gotten all of it. You dont see any commercials or YouTube Ads for Dreams, but I see Days Gone trailers and Ads on almost every YouTube video. I think Sony just wanted to get both of these games out finally and just let the chips fall where they may at the end of this generation as there focus has clearly shifted primarily to the planning of the PS5 reveal. What we are seeing now with these early State of Play episodes etc, is Sony pushing out all of their minor and lesser known properties during this extremely quiet period while they wait for Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsusima to be ready to go. I think Sony is actually playing the long game if you really break it down. They ARE NOTA being arrogant, they've being measured and quiet. Microsoft is making noise because they have to stay relevant, Sony is quietly loading their bullets into the chamber for their next large event.

LastStandMedia
>>21421133

I think you should separate your first party assets as much as possible. Why wouldn't you? There's only so much oxygen.

Gabriel Garcia

The way I did the trophy for The Messenger that you mentioned on the show was that I'd just completely exit out of the application as soon as I died since it didn't seem to save fast enough and then restarted at the place where the game saved last. The whole time I was unsure it would even work so as the game progressed more and more under that save I got more and more nervous that I had just wasted so much time on this trophy but thankfully worked in the end.

Brett Carlson
>>21421133

I would normally agree, but this reads like Sony is clearing the board for both Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsusima to be released in 2019. One in the summer and one holiday season. Both those games are orders of magnitude larger then Dreams and Days Gone.

NeO JD

Of the Crash fans I know, CTR is their favorite Crash game. If everybody on the internet lies, what are you hiding Colin? 🤔

Dan Parsons

Is it just me, or does this podcast just keep getting better? Genuine LOLs.

Kaleb

On Jack Blacks "gaming" Youtube channel theres a running gag every week that his El Gato isnt working so he wont play a game that week. Kingdom Hearts 3 is Colin's El Gato. I think I'm enjoying the absence of the Let's Play more than I'll enjoy the actual Let's Play.

Kyle Goodrich
>>21429251

I was getting that vibe too! Or like Jimmy Kimmel's "we ran out of time for Matt Damon tonight" gag, it might be even funnier if he just never gets around to it all but continues to allude to it lol.

LastStandMedia
>>21429251

Dagan was telling me about that when I was in Philly. Sounds funny as hell, actually. But for us, we just need an audio solution so we can both hear the game and capture it. Seems doable.

Toren R. (KESA)

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last 2 generations it’s to never expect a game’s DLC to fix glaring day-1 issues. Sure, it can happen, through great expansions and updates, but for the most part, it just doesn’t. (FFXV I'm looking at you, bitch) That said, Driveclub is an example, maybe THE example of a game being improved – and dramatically so - over the course of time. Anyone like myself, who picked up the game day 1, will recall that it was a complete disaster. Many of the features that we promised during the game’s reveal – such as dynamic weather and the online functionality (all of which were key differentiators for the new franchise) were nowhere to be found. All that was there was a barren single player and a promise that features would be added over time. Overtime, more and more courses, objectives, and cars were added in. then multiplayer, which was absolutely incredible, then more expansions, and motorcycles out of NOWHERE, weather effects, and even VR. Oddly enough, the experience of taking on new content as it came may have actually resulted in a more enjoyable experience, because lost in all the talk about the game is the fact that the fundamental experience of racing was PHENOMENAL. Driving was balanced between sim-like and arcade-y perfectly. I’m no racing game expert by any means, but my lack of ability has never influenced my need to be competitive whatsoever lol and in games like Forza, that have a rewind feature, I found myself rewinding every corner over and over and over again until I got it just right, because the sole reward was placing in first, making what should be a 2 minute lap take closer to 20. In DriveClub, the progression wasn’t exclusively pinned to placing in the top spot, but instead aspects of racing like driving accuracy, or hitting top speeds in certain zones, or drafting, drifting, and overtaking, and so on. Additionally, the game MASTERED middle-of-the-pack pacing. So often in racing games (especially sims) if you ain’t first, you’re last, which has always undermined the thrill of the race for me. That was not an issue in DriveClub. Without feeling “rubberbandy,” you always had headlights at your bumper ready to overtake you. Again, there was no rewind feature, so the hunt for first place was extremely compelling, but finishing in 6th wasn’t the end of the world because you may have racked up progression points in a different manner entirely. Long story short, Races flew by with nail-biting, bumper to bumper, exhilaration without engendering that urge to quit and restart if I fell behind. I fucking loved it. Because the game got the feel of races SO right, gobbling up new content as it came was genuinely enjoyable. I felt like my skills and fondness were growing alongside the game with each roll-out, launch problems be damned. It’s a shame that there will be no more from Evolution Studios. There was something really, REALLY special there. Sony almost seems resentful towards the game, but even still there are echoes of DriveClub’s influence throughout nearly every racing game since. It got a LOT right. More than most. Just not the launch. RIPole Position.

Michael Candelaria

Hey guys, just an opinion here, but I got into driveclub after all the patches and everything. It's a really really good driving game, and I'm a huge fan of driving games. I feel like Evolution Studios and Sony at the time were a victim of a witch hunt because of the PS Plus edition not coming out for a year after release and the way it put a damper on the launch of the PS4. I'm bummed that it will be gone because all of the online feature and competitive stuff made it really fun to go back to.

Brett Carlson

Hey Colin I have a funny question for you. How many hours past a normal 9-5 do you think Jason Schreier worked in order to write a story about people working too much? Man the irony. Like it is forced slave labor to make a video game. I guess no Dev on Earth LOVES their job so much they put their soul into it. I guess that does not exist. It's only the 10 stragglers who dont even have the gumption to name themselves who complain. Novelist dont complain, surgeons, actors, directors etc. But for some reason if you make video games and work more then 8 hours you must be in a hostile Nazi-era work place. I'm a US Military veteran. On more then one occasion I was awake 48 plus hours to get the mission done. It was part of the job. No one should be FORCED to work crazy hours, but their is absolutely nothing wrong with people digging deep to complete their vision. That gets lost in all this. It really infuriates me that no one writes the story about how many Devs love what they do and love putting their all into it. News Flash people, God of War does not exist working 9-5. No shot.

John Lynch

I got a tingling in my balls when Colin mentioned the evil within 3. Two is amazing but sold awfully. I can’t imagine that Bethesda green lights a third I think we’re more likely to see Tengo make a new horror ip, although I’m not sure what they’re going to do that would sell what they would like to see. Either Way, I’m down for whatever Tengo makes

Jeremy Craves

Sony has closed the servers for a lot of games, as you mentioned. I wonder if closing Drive Club is an aim to get people to hopefully try Gran Turismo Sport. GT Sport never generated much buzz and seems way behind Forza now. Drive Club only made sense because Sony knew Polyphony would take forever and even then, just should have let hype build for GT.

LastStandMedia
>>21470804

Possibly so, but if anything, Sony is merely telegraphing to the consumer that they cannot be relied upon for long-term support.

LastStandMedia
>>21468034

Yeah, it may be hard to sell a third Evil Within, but that team is made to create horror games, so -- as you said -- whatever they're doing is in that wheelhouse.

LastStandMedia
>>21446579

It's an interesting question when passion and work are crossed. I'm already over the labor conversation.

LastStandMedia
>>21441734

I'm happy Evolution finally figured it out. I remember in the months leading up to PS4's release, before Driveclub's delay was announced, people were grumbling to me behind the scenes that the game was totally fucked. Turns out they were right. Why put so much trouble into fixing something just to remove the ability for anyone to play it properly? It's weird.

Kaz Redclaw

I thought of one more developer who made the same game for multiple publishers. The team that made a Mobile Westworld game, and also made the Fallout Shelter game. Both games were very obviously from the same base, it looks like they forked Fallout Shelter off from another game they had made, then forked Westworld from that same game, because both of them had an identical bug when they were released that was fixed in Fallout Shelter before westworld was released. This seems to be pretty rampant in the mobile space, I'm pretty sure the FF15 New Empire game is identical to many other games made by that developer as well because it really has next to nothing to do with FF15, it just looks like a reskin.

Kaz Redclaw
>>21548905

Also, for 360 games like Gears of War... Those games are Peer to Peer. They don't require dedicated servers unlike most PS3 and PS4 games. All it has is the universal matchmaking servers built into the xbox 360 service, and then all of the game hosting is done by the user's systems. PS3 didn't offer any matchmaking servers at all so all of the hosting had to be done by the devs of the games.

John Lynch
>>21470804

To be fair to Sony, I just played a co-op game on unit 13 today for the trophy. I hosted the game myself and didn’t look for anyone on forums. Wasn’t anyone on my friends list. A random joined. Something odd is going on here lol. Meanwhile, nothing holding me back from the unit 13 platinum

Luke Bernhard

Way too late on this comment - but on the Division 2 comments about the penalties for dying and not being able to spawn near the control point you're trying to take - I think that the reward for not dying (if you're not in coop) is that you get to use that control point as a place to spawn. It is incredibly fucking annoying to have to slog back to the control point and start it over, but once you do, it is yours forever. I think the devs knew it would be a pain-reward type thing. Just my take on it.

LastStandMedia
>>21652315

No, certainly, but the design question remains: If I'm halfway through a side quest or main quest, it creates tons of checkpoints, but if I'm doing anything else, it doesn't. That doesn't really make any sense to me.