Sacred Symbols+, Episode 287 | Reminiscing About (and Reviving?) PlayStation Experience (Patreon)

For a brief run of years during the PlayStation 4 era, Sony deployed a fun little idea: An annual gathering of PlayStation's most hardcore fanbase called PSX, or PlayStation Experience. Started in 2014 and abandoned after 2017, the briefly recurring show began in Vegas (2014), migrated to San Francisco (2015), did a two-year stint in Anaheim (2016-2017), and was then left for dead the following year. Between me (Colin) and Dustin, we've been to all of them. I went to the first three; Dustin went to the final three. And they were fun, perhaps best described as a fusion between PAX and GDC. The idea behind this episode was to propose how such a show may be revived in the modern era, and whether it'd be a good idea to do so at all. But our recording also morphed into a reminiscence of a different time, when shows like these seemed to make more sense, but perhaps don't anymore. Why is Nintendo embracing a fan-facing future while Sony seems reluctant to speak at all? Well, it turns out we're dealing with two very different companies with two entirely separate corporate philosophies.