Sacred Symbols, Episode 288 | You're A Slave To Money, Then You Die (Patreon)

Sony-owned Insomniac Games suffered a major hack in late 2023, and seemingly infinite leaks made their way to various corners of the internet mere days after we went away for break. We're not going to shy away from the subject matter -- the news is the news, after all -- but we do want to talk about the situation holistically. Yes, Insomniac is a money-printing machine, but it's also now almost completely indentured to a licensor to keep the supply of cash flowing, and may be unable to stop if it wants to survive. Meanwhile, many of our peers and competitors shied away from covering the topic at all, in perhaps one of the rarest and most pristine examples of media bias seen in recent memory. Let's delve into all of it, shall we? Since we haven't recorded in some time, there's obviously other news to get through as well, including a new sales milestone for PS5, tantalizing details about NCSoft's mysterious Horizon MMO, the quiet return of CoD veteran Jason Blundell to the PlayStation fold, the closure of a key PSVR second party partner, and more. Listener inquiries help us round things out, touching on topics like NCAA Football's return, PS5 Pro's potential, GTAVI's potential price, and an admission that -- yes, indeed -- sleeping without underwear but in a t-shirt is the optimal way for one to rest.

Timestamps:
0:00:00 - Introduction

00:20:44 - Sacred+ is changing

00:26:39 - Summon Sign: Our new show!

00:40:59 - Did Colin setup the soundbar?

00:47:36 - Vegas recommendations

00:48:31 - Winnie the Pooh style is underrated

00:54:16 - What kind of adult drinks do we like?

01:01:10 - Thrillville on PS+ is the PSP version

01:05:25 - PS Portal is a great gift!

01:08:03 - PlayStation Blog's 2024 Highlights

01:16:08 - Discovery Content is back

01:21:45 - Cyberpunk DLC passes 5 million sold

01:22:47 - Bill and Ted's Excellent Retro Collection will be delisted after less than a year

01:28:34 - What Are We Playing?

02:14:15 - Insomniac Games was hacked

03:03:38 - PS5 has surpassed 50 million units sold.

03:16:39 - Jason Blundell is back at PlayStation

03:26:35 - New details on the NCSoft Horizon multiplayer project

03:35:40 - First Contact has closed down

03:44:00 - January PS+ games have been revealed

03:52:13 - Could PS5 Pro and Switch 2 come out at the same time?

03:58:11 - Why aren't more entertainment conglomerates creating games?

04:03:30 - Why is there still so much garbage on the PlayStation Store?

04:08:15 - Will NCAA Football be on the Madden engine?

04:12:25 - Could GTA VI cost $99?

04:21:03 - What video games would we want to write a new entry in?