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You're A Slave To Money, Then You Die | Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast, Episode 288

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. Follow the hosts on Twitter! Colin: https://twitter.com/longislandviper Chris: https://twitter.com/ChrisRGun Dustin: https://twitter.com/DustinCanFly A new episode of Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast launches each Friday morning. To receive instant access, as well as other perks, please support the show on Patreon at http://patreon.com/LastStandMedia This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/symbols and get on your way to being your best self Start building credit at https://www.chime.com/sacred 00:00:00 - Introd 00:25:28- Sacred+ is changing 00:31:30 - Summon Sign: Our new show! 00:45:50 - Did Colin setup the soundbar? 00:52:27 - Vegas recommendations 00:53:22 - Winnie the Pooh style is underrated 00:59:07 - What kind of adult drinks do we like? 01:06:01 - Thrillville on PS+ is the PSP version 01:10:16 - PS Portal is a great gift! 01:12:54 - PlayStation Blog's 2024 Highlights 01:20:59 - Discovery Content is back 01:26:36 - Cyberpunk DLC passes 5 million sold 01:27:38 - Bill and Ted's Excellent Retro Collection will be delisted after less than a year 01:33:25 - What Are We Playing? 02:19:06 - Insomniac Games was hacked 03:08:29 - PS5 has surpassed 50 million units sold. 03:21:30 - Dave Anthony is back at PlayStation 03:31:26 - New details on the NCSoft Horizon multiplayer project 03:40:31 - First Contact has closed down 03:48:51 - January PS+ games have been revealed 03:57:04 - Could PS5 Pro and Switch 2 come out at the same time? 04:03:02 - Why aren't more entertainment conglomerates creating games? 04:08:21 - Why is there still so much garbage on the PlayStation Store? 04:13:06 - Will NCAA Football be on the Madden engine? 04:17:16 - Could GTA VI cost $99? 04:25:55 - What video games would we want to write a new entry in?

Comments

Marco Bruno

Hi SS crew. Not a question but a thought on the journalistic integrity of reporting on leaks. I work in media and one of the tenets of news reporting that is considered sacrosanct is the concept of "minimizing unneccesary harm." (Check the SPJ Code of Ethics for a more thorough explanation.) You mention the reporting of leaks in government that led to "CIA agents being disappeared," - and in those instances the mental calculus was that the public's right to know obviously trounced the value of the harm caused by the reporting. I agree, thoroughly, that the games media botched this whole Insomniac thing. It reeks of soft cronyism. However, I could be persuaded to think that they did the right thing, but for the wrong reason. An argument can be made that in reporting on the leaks, media empowers the hackers to continue their criminal deeds. (ie. the more damage done to Insomniac, the more seriously the hackers should be taken in the future by other companies). Consider the reason why news broadcasts don't report the names of mass shooters - they don't want to embolden copycat offenders. It goes without saying that none of this games industry stuff is as high stakes as those more dire examples. Anyways this was just food for thought. I think ethics in journalism are actually very tricky to nail down. I think that generally speaking your show handled it well. There's certainly palace intrigue with Sony and this revered developer - and as adults we can decide to ignore (in reporting and consuming media) all the personally damaging materials that were in the leak.

simon Anderson

Had a real chuckle at the guys reaction to seeing Ronaldo's bust. Seeing that thing always gives me a laugh.

Born-Blind

I'd rather not see any of the Insomniac leaks. Wolverine is for sure my favorite superhero... Always been jealous of his longevity and ability to regenerate

Born-Blind

It's interesting that so many of us listen to the same podcasts as Colin does. Lex Fridman's podcast has gotten better and better over the years... love it