Sacred Symbols, Episode 375 | Never Meant to Fade Away

While Ghost of Yotei has gone gold and is now right around the corner, other segments of PlayStation Studios are on far less sturdy ground. Fairgames (or Fairgame$, if you like marketing) is seemingly the latest victim of an unprecedented run of bad decision-making, execution, and leadership within Sony's first party, as the upcoming shooter has shed its director, often (though not always) a dire sign for any project. Taken with recent reports (from this very show) of poor internal playtesting -- all the while Haven has already shed its major front-facing face and co-founder Jade Raymond -- we simply have to wonder whether Fairgames will ever launch at all. And if it does, does it have any potential to succeed whatsoever? Other news this week includes the rumored reemergence of Insomniac's Wolverine project, downward-revised SSD space for upcoming PS5 consoles, a fresh look at the promising Uncharted-like IO title 007: First Light, and much more. Then: Listener inquiries! Does Naughty Dog actually represent the pinnacle of game dev? How much can people twist themselves into a knot to justify piracy? What kind of pressure are studios and publishers under to adopt AI solutions? Will "Alleghany Hogs" catch on around the world?

Timestamps:
0:00:00 - Intro

0:32:42 - Shoutout Preston

0:40:47 - "Please clean up after your dog"

0:52:10 - Let em oink

0:54:16 - Chronos helmet = penis?

0:55:36 - MGS3 correction

0:56:34 - Ghost of Yotei goes gold

1:03:22 - Fairgames creative director leave Haven

1:28:24 - Wolverine rumors

1:47:23 - PS5 reducing storage space on new units

2:02:18 - 007 First Light gameplay revealed

2:14:27 - IO may not publish an external game again after MindsEye

2:19:13 - Hollow Knight SIlksong is only $20

2:27:57 - Capcom president says consoles are too becoming too expensive

2:34:55 - Pragmata is not a Mega Man game

2:37:01 - More games coming to PS4

2:44:57 - New live-action Tomb Raider

2:47:04 - What We’re Playing

3:29:04 - Emulating new games

3:44:41 - Why is Naughty Dog one of the best?

3:53:42 - Call of Duty changing course on skins?

4:00:24 - World's first platinum

4:04:38 - Sony's pressure to integrate AI

4:09:31 - Grading the show at the end