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Sacred Symbols, Episode 90: Crisis (Patreon)

Published:
2020-03-17 16:00:04
Imported:
2022-01

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Content

This episode of Sacred Symbols -- like every one before it -- will become a time capsule. It's just that, in these seemingly historic days, this time capsule might be a little more real than the rest. The world is going through a tumultuous period, and in our little corner called The Gaming Industry, we certainly aren't immune. E3 is cancelled, for starters, but that's no surprise. And word of distress is emerging from Naughty Dog about harsh working conditions, too. But perhaps the biggest news of all is about PlayStation 5's seemingly inevitable delay into 2021, something not yet confirmed, but something being widely speculated about. It's big news not only because it pushes next-gen into the distance, but because its delay would come because of the Coronavirus that's currently giving us a run for our money. So let's talk candidly about the troubles facing our hobby and ourselves, and spice in some humor, listener inquiries, and other pieces of news, too. No, this certainly isn't the apocalypse. But who can blame you for feeling like it is?

Timestamps:

0:00:17 - Intro
0:04:35 - Twin Breaker will be out next week!
0:07:35 - Pronouncing the word "Chocobo".
0:10:05 - Our take on the Naughty Dog crunch article on Kotaku.
0:22:53 - Checking back in on the release schedule.
0:25:15 - No, Sony isn't going to buy Konami's IP.
0:27:36 - What have we been playing?
0:30:45 - E3 2020 has been cancelled.
0:35:02 - WB Games was planning its first ever E3 press conference.
0:39:17 - Financial analysts are sounding the alarm: PS5's likely getting delayed.
0:43:46 - Will Coronavirus kill the physical games market?
0:46:28 - Will game sales increase due to Coronavirus?
0:47:51 - Horizon: Zero Dawn on PC is an experiment, says Sony.
0:52:22 - New NFL 2K games are in the works (kinda).
0:55:15 - Media Molecule is figuring out how to market Dreams-related products.
0:58:44 - A Tony Hawk video game is coming.
1:00:36 - 1997's Blade Runner PC game is coming to PS4.
1:02:15 - The best-selling games of February 2020 were...
1:04:54 - Iceborne and Kakarot hit sales milestones.
1:05:55 - Call of Duty: Warzone is a huge hit.
1:07:05 - Minor game announcements and release date information.
1:08:18 - This week's new releases for PS4, PS Vita, and PSVR.
1:17:07 - What high-profile game(s) will Coronavirus delay?
1:20:11 - What movie/series would we like to see made into a game?
1:23:58 - Reggie Fils-Aimé is joining GameStop's board. Does it matter?
1:27:48 - Do used games help bolster PS4's attach rate?
1:30:05 - What's the deal with people getting upset about TLoU's Ellie's sexuality?
1:34:09 - Is there any background lore from games that has stuck with us?

Files

Comments

Anonymous

Here we go. At least we know next week's episode will be the PS5 details dropping tomorrow.

Remington James

In this crazy world at least I have one thing that’s consistent

James Galos

At least I will have entertainment while the world is ending around me. Stuck at home for 3 weeks in the Bay Area will be torture, but good news the back catalog is getting caught up on while I “work from home”.

Anthony J Sanchez

I'm pretty sure Sacred Symbols plus this week will be all about next gen specs from both Microsoft and Sony!

Anonymous

Will we have to wait till next week for you to speak about ps5 specs?

Drew Sleezer

Classic Playstation, announcing that Mark Cerny will discuss PS5 tech the day after SS comes out. Additionally, regarding crunch, I have a couple friends that work at a major accounting firm, and crunch is not a thing exclusive to the gaming industry. They've slept at the office putting in 80-90 hour weeks during their busiest month. Afterwards they get fat checks and a ton of time off. I think it's important to remember that crunch is literally everywhere.

Anonymous
>>33787487

SS+ seems to be pretty fluid, I'm sure Colin can adjust fire.

Gr4vity400

DBZ Kakarot is great! You kind of have to love DBZ though to enjoy it.

Dom posa

It’s actually worse. I keep hearing people say they are buying Konami like that’s even a possibility

Anonymous
>>33786443

Colin responded to someone on Twitter saying it would be.

Anonymous

10 minutes in talking about SS+ being about Xbox... I doubt that haha

Max Stahl

It is during rough times like these where it is most important to enjoy the great outdoors...in Red Dead Redemption II!

D'Ante Almo

Sooooo Colin, uhh I’ve been tryna to find a way to wipe my psVita to get ride of some vita 1% list.. like you said you’ve done a few times. How do I do this? If you don’t mind me asking .

Anonymous

Colin, you're bang on with the crunch opinion. I'm a UPS guy and we work forced OT nearly every day of the week. Christmas would be our "crunch" I've never heard a bunch of people crying for us... Every Friday when the paycheque comes in, I'm a happy man.

Zack Forney

Great episode corona boys! I have enough games to tackle during this lockdown that will help me not twin-break my face against the wall, but Colin what’s the best Tales game? Have never played one before

Jake Z

Colin, if the PS5 comes out this year, you should put up a poll with different charity options and actually donate that $500 to the winning charity.

McHooliganXXL

When was this Sacred Symbols recorded? Oh well, I'll just wait for SS+

Dom posa

More than 50% digital but those games are huge on PC

Anonymous

Loved the episode guys, just wanted to be clear that I don’t have a problem with Ellie being a lesbian. I actually think it adds a lot to her character depth, I was perplexed as to why so many people take issue with matters of a persons identity. I apologize for not including that period, as a writer I was kicking myself for a solid five minutes. Lol

Anonymous

I really want to know how Dreams that has a 88 critic rating and 9.0 user rating on metacritic is half baked. Poorly marketed? Sure. Niche market? For now, until Dreams has its first great full length game rather than a bunch of good experiences. Half baked? Not in the slightest.

Derek Waechter

Since the coming week’s SS+ is going to be about new PS5 details, does that mean that an Xbox episode will no longer happen?

LastStandMedia
>>33796974

Tales of Destiny is my favorite, but I don't even think that's available to play unless you have it on the original PSone. Symphonia is a fan favorite, as is Xillia.

LastStandMedia
>>33812497

If a game has no marketing, no buzz, and no real purpose for existing, I'd call that a half-baked approach. But I understand your point.

ZachAttacksGames

Thanks for taking my question. I'm having a rough week and that really perked me up and put me in a great mood.

Anonymous
>>33812497

Ok I see what you mean. From that perspective half baked makes sense. I interpreted it as half baked similar to Anthem or something along those lines.

Anonymous
>>33813073

It is kind of a pick me up when you get your question taken from someone in the game’s industry you respect. Just choose topical questions that Colin and Chris can spend a good five minutes discussing and you’ve got a good chance of him picking it. Throwaway questions and questions that fifty other people have already asked are unwise choices.

Anonymous

I would have had no idea what dirty jobs with Mike Rowe was if it wasn't for getting up mega early here in the UK for work, a digital TV channle called Quest plays old reruns of it in the early hours of the morning and now I feel more enriched by knowing the reference so thanks for that boys. Good work. Somebody needs to make that game.

Anonymous

Weekly PSN discounts are up and "Brick Breaker" is £3.29 (59% off)...Sony is really out to get you 😂

Jimmy Valentine

It's interesting hearing about this crunch thing and hearing people be surprised. I'm starting to get to a level in my company where I have a decent amount of responsibility. I work for a large disability and voluntary insurance company and at certain times of the year, we have crunch. Especially when we're working on a systems or IT project. It's also perplexing to me when someone says that if they had better managers, everything would have gone perfect. That sounds like someone who hasn't had to plan anything or manage a large group. No project or plan goes 100% smooth. Things happen, teams change, leadership changes, programs work in test but not in production, plans are altered due to budgets or priorities, etc. Are there inefficient and not great managers? Of course. Do most projects, even with great management struggle and have crunch to meet deadlines? Yup. Meeting deadlines is hard in any business. If you don't set deadlines and have some type of urgency though, you'll never get a project done imo.

Mr. Joanna Dark

@jimmy valentine, this crunch article and reporting is a hypocrisy. All of a sudden all these outlets started giving there workers days off after reviewing games. Yet on podcast I hear these same people joking about crunching. I was in the military for 15yrs, I guess crunching in a war zone is bad! Or a doctor working extra to cure people should not happen. Some arts and jobs require these things. That is why they get highly compensated.

B

They could postpone ghost but tlou2 was delayed and perhaps they are just sticking to the original date

Brett Carlson

Colin before next episode is STRONGLY recommended you watch the Digital Foundry breakdown of Cernys talk. Thank god for them being the voice of reason for the lament because the rage I feel when all anyone got out of Cernys talk was "OMG 10 TERAFLOPS IS LESS THEN 12, XBOX IS WAYYYYY MORE POWERFUL". Hardware specs is my field and I want every who watches sacred symbols to know that for the first time in a long time these two console makers are actually created different products. The amount of speed Playstation is bringing to the table is absolutely outrageous. Currently faster then anything on offer for PC. The custom SSD technology is so impressive. The Tempest 3D audio is also a massive gamechanger that you will only appreciate when you actually are hands on. Xbox One X when for strictly raw power. What Mark Cerny has done is truly craft a fucking unique console here. For all my Sony fans do not fret. I know it seemed like a Ted Talk, but he is the architect and for those of us into the details we came away highly impressed. It is a safe bet that PS5 will be 50 dollars cheaper. And one last note, SSD speeds ARE NOT ONLY LOADING TIMES. We are talking rendering of data in game instantly. No more texture pop in or draw distance pop in. Every detail infront of the player will be fully rendered at all times. These ideas Colin are revolutionary for game designers. This changes the way the make games functionally. 1st Party titles are what will take full advantage of this. I know people are shit talking the reveal, but it was not a reveal. They said this was Cernys GDC presentation and if your a playstation fan you know what your getting if Cerny is presenting. Great information, but terrible marketing my Sony. They have to understand peoples expectations. The common fan was dumbfounded by that talk.

Anonymous

I lead a practice of application developers. My employees are global and we work for large MNC’s, governments, and medium sized businesses. I’ve lead to completion many dozens of projects directly and have overseen many more. Before that I served in the USMC. Project crunch happens. Sometimes leadership asks employees/contractors to burn more than the scheduled hours to attempt to keep the project schedule at the expense of the project budget or quality. If it’s excessive, meaning it isn’t a short burn cycle but setup as ongoing, it isn’t crunch; it’s the working conditions. It’s not desirable to crunch for long periods of time (lots of research on this topic) but for short cycles, it’s acceptable and should be rewarded. Sometimes that reward is monetary and others it is Paid time off that doesn’t come from the HR bucket. Sometimes it’s simply acknowledgement. As a leader, you never ask your employees to do something you won’t and aren’t doing first. Asking someone to give up more of themselves for the project should be a heavy decision and it needs to rewarded for the cost to the employee. But there is this other side that agenda writers don’t want to cover because it doesn’t fit their narrative. No matter how much leaders like myself ask our teams to take time off, step away from the keyboard or office and balance their life, people take pride in their work. That pride causes us to put in “overtime” to achieve the result we want, be it a better quality product or service or volume of widgets produced. People often crunch themselves. We all do it. To act like we don’t is disingenuous. There seems to be smoke which means there might be fire regarding potential work schedules that aren’t balanced with expectations. If leadership is forcing people to work with threat of losing there job for months on end and along that crunch, they are misusing the term and exploiting their people. But in all my years, I’ve only had a few projects where leaders other than myself were pushing 6-7 days a week, 14-hour days for more than a month. The picture being painted doesn’t pass the smell test. I’ve worked on those projects but those employers have extremely high attrition rates, or the people that stay are very well compensated. Employment is a choice by the employer and the employee. Leadership should exploit there people, and the employees shouldn’t overwork themselves out of pride. You have to work to find that balance. There is no doubt that companies like Rockstar, Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, and frankly all dev shops crunch to various degrees. But you can’t convince me that all of the employees participated in that grueling environment (I’ve worked 100 hour weeks and it is not sustainable for more than a month let alone five years, just stop already, physiology process otherwise) for years on end in abject misery. If these so called journalists would start being honest with us and tell the story without embellishments, we might actually be aligned with effecting change if it was needed. Writers who tell us the only answer to these conditions is a union, who then join a union, and can’t even have a dialogue with leadership in their own company when they have a labor dispute. TL;DR: I lead development teams, crunch is real and OK if both parties get something out of the arrangement of crunch. Agenda articles are transparently biased and hurting the credibility of the issue they purport to expose this alienating a base of potential support for when it goes beyond “crunch”.

Anonymous
>>33862738

I saw a few typos from my phone autocorrect. Leadership should *not* exploit *their* employees...you get the idea. Sorry needed to shout into the void on this one. The topic is so mischaracterized as someone in the development industry that it causes me to roll my eyes now every time it comes up.

Anonymous
>>33862615

I agree wholeheartedly with you. I’m no hardware manufacturer but I know a bit about this as a software developer. Even the comment about using your own M.2 drive, while nice, isn’t the whole story as an example. You can bet they are coming up with a proprietary one that will have a better bus system with their chips and have a major benefit for their games over an off the shelf brand. These machines are truly different again. However, my concerns are price because proprietary (think Vita), that no third party will use these features, and audio isn’t as important to the mainstream as they hope. First party is going to be game changing. I wasn’t excited going into the talk, and I left amazed that they are hitting these marks in a console!

Brett Carlson
>>33862615

Agreed. I also think people need to still wait a little longer on the overall picture for PS5. Mark Cerny is far from a marketer or hype person. So I think Sony s has a few things to announce to really drive home some of these specs. For example people are going crazy about only being backwards compatible with 100 PS4 games. I believe he meant physical discs. The overarching backwards compatibility for PS5 is going to be related to a revamped PS NOW service which I believe they will unveil during a more pure marketing presentation. Cerny was just literally going into very very deep technical aspects. The picture for the general consumer I believe will be further illuminated once they have a proper reveal. They will show examples of what the SSD can do and ray tracing etc. I believe people misunderstood what today was. It wasn't a PS5 reveal. It was literally a presentation that was meant for GDC and solely meant to be heard and understood by game dev's. This was a marketing mess up by Sony because they should have understood people's expectations. Especially during these trying times.

Oliver Johnson

I think Colin’s view on work hours for artists is a bit unfair. I work in the film industry, I know what it’s like to work long hours and incredibly hard to perfect something but when you work hard only to find out a producer fucked something up and all that time was wasted it can be pretty demoralizing. I constantly work double overtime hours but I can say it’s never worth the extra cash to lose sleep and time with loved ones when you know you’re going to be back at it all week. I know it’s different in film but there’s always a way to make the time work and to have people up top disrespect that time is not ok and to say “then don’t do the job” is inappropriate. The people at the top should be doing their jobs properly, it shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of the workers and it sounds like that’s what’s happening at Naughty Dog.

Simon Concepcion Jr.

Confirmed with my source that WB is launching Harry Potter late 2021

ZachAttacksGames
>>33813073

Likewise. I sincerely hope that whatever is going on in your personal life is resolved quickly and that you feel better as soon as possible.

LastStandMedia
>>33827459

I really do believe that a lot of the "it comes down to management" thing is really spoken out of ignorance. Situations are dynamic, they change, they become complex. Rarely are things reduced in complexity over time.

LastStandMedia
>>33844280

No one is stopping people from working jobs with tight time parameters! The games industry just isn't one of those places.

LastStandMedia
>>33855626

If Coronavirus doesn't abate, I'm starting to wonder if they both get delayed. Manufacturing is going to be an issue.

LastStandMedia
>>33862738

The reality is, the issue isn't covered fairly or equitably because doing so fails to progress a specific political point-of-view. The people who write about this stuff are activists.