Sacred Symbols, Episode 251 | The Heat Is On (Patreon)

As it comes to grips with the new realities of an ever-consolidating market, Sony has opted to increase its aggressiveness by purchasing Firewalk Studios. Like Haven and Nixxes before it, buying Firewalk is an unusually premature move for a company that typically likes to conduct extensive second party dances before putting a ring on it. But its arch-rival and third party publishers alike have made it clear that the old rules of buying teams no longer apply, and that courtships can no longer span the production of multiple titles. Will this increasing embrace of size benefit PlayStation or hinder it? Only time will tell, but we've obviously much to discuss. Other big news this week includes PlayStation 5's staggering sales figures, the exit of more high-level talent from Media Molecule, and much more, and we round things out -- as always -- with listener inquiries. Is enemy scaling really necessary? Could Ubisoft be readying a low-key banger with XDefiant? Do players really 'graduate' from Nintendo to PlayStation? Is Colin developing a hankering for gardening?

Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Intro

0:03:56 - Congrats to Chris!

0:17:15 - What were our thoughts about the FF16 State of Play?

0:20:29 - What else will we add to the merch shop?

0:27:49 - Is it warm enough for Colin to kill frogs in the pool again?

0:34:38 - Tetris Effect is great

0:38:10 - Do we have any interest in Horizon: Burning Shores?

0:49:24 - HBO’s The Last of Us seems to be confirmed beyond Season Two

0:50:45 - Gut check on Immortals of Aveum?

0:56:04 - Diablo IV has gone gold

1:00:26 - Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions has been announced

1:06:35 - Armored Core VI may be imminent

1:10:58 - Sega has purchased Rovio

1:11:46 - AARP claims that 45% of Americans 50 years and older are gaming

1:14:08 - What have we been playing?

1:42:33 - Sony has purchased Firewalk Studios

2:00:28 - PlayStation 5 sales are still very strong

2:15:48 - Mark Healey has left Media Molecule

2:31:26 - Sony is attracting the attention of the U.S. government

2:46:48 - Bungie is taking action against leakers

2:58:58 - What video game terms have we used incorrectly?

3:02:26 - Do we have any expectations for the next Mass Effect?

3:14:17 - What’s the deal with RPG EXP inequality?

3:23:27 - Do we have thoughts on XDefiant?

3:31:28 - Are Sony’s games all the same?

3:40:48 - Why is the DualSense so uncomfortable?