Sacred Symbols, Episode 172: Anti-Crunch (Patreon)

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 possible if you want to create truly great games. Naturally, we discuss. Also: Sony has quietly poached the Head of Content of Apple Arcade, Ryu Ga Gotoku simultaneously loses its director and producer, EA and FIFA are fighting over the future of Electronic Arts' most important franchise, and much more. Then, listener inquiries! Are we as perplexed by Ubisoft's recent decisions as many of our audience members? What do we expect out of Returnal's rumored upcoming update? Did Crystal Dynamics lie to its audience by unleashing pay-to-win schemes in The Avengers? Will the boys ever cease quarreling about the efficacy of bidets?

Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Intro

0:04:09 - Why does Dustin hate Aldi?

0:09:59 - Corrections, comments, and concerns.

0:41:42 - Some smaller news items.

1:18:57 - What have we been playing?

1:45:43 - Sony has poached Nicola Sebastiani, head of content for Apple Arcade.

1:55:02 - Toshihiro Nagoshi has departed Ryu Ga Gotoku and appears to be creating his own studio under NetEase.

1:59:36 - Eidos Montreal and Sherbrooke studios are changing up their work week.

2:13:00 - EA’s FIFA games may get a name change.

2:21:57 - Ubisoft has indefinitely delayed its closed test of Ghost Recon: Frontline.

2:33:14 - How do we feel about Far Cry 6’s lack of iteration compared to Ghost Recon’s drastic changes?

2:38:11 - Final Fantasy XIV is the biggest game in the franchise.

2:43:52 - News Wrap-Up

2:45:12 - What do we expect out of the inevitable PS5 Pro?

2:55:57 - Should multiple difficulty settings be a thing of the past?

3:05:05 - Why didn’t we acknowledge the control center changes in the PS5 UI update?

3:06:14 - There may be a big patch coming for Returnal. What do we want to see?

3:12:46 - How do we feel about XP boosters in Marvel’s Avengers?