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Sacred Symbols, Episode 428: The Thread (Patreon)

Published:
2026-09-09 19:00:04
Imported:
2026-09

Content

Hi!

Submit your questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, and ideas for this week's episode of Sacred Symbols in this thread.

As always, please keep your inquiries well-written and pithy. Novels, poorly-written posts, etc. are politely ignored.

You have until Thursday, September 10th at noon ET to submit.

Talk to you soon!

Comments

Raisin

With reports from NateTheHate stating that Insomniac's Venom game is still in production, are the days of "PS5 has no games" over? Assuming Venom is coming next year, we're about to get Wolverine and Venom within a year of each other. And then, if the Insomniac leaks hold true, we're about to get Spider-Man 3 somewhere in 2028–2029. Not to mention, we still have a Ratchet & Clank game and an X-Men game in production. And that's just Insomniac. Team Asobi launched Astro Bot in 2024. We're probably getting pretty close to seeing what's next from them. From there, you've got Polyphony, where I'd imagine that, in the next two to three years, we're getting Gran Turismo 8. Then there's Santa Monica. We already know that the next mainline Kratos game is in production, along with the God of War Greek trilogy remakes and Laufey in February. Santa Monica's hands are full. And then you've got Naughty Dog. We pretty much know we're getting Intergalactic next year. We also know Shaun Escayg has another project in the works—probably Uncharted. And most recently, we learned from Neil that there are multiple Last of Us projects in the works. One of those has to be the third game. And that's not even touching on Housemarque, Sucker Punch, Firesprite, Bend, and Guerrilla. But what about y'all? Are you excited about the ship slowly turning as it relates to first-party? Does the phrase "PS5 has no games" have any merit anymore? Did it ever have any merit? As always, I'm interested in hearing y'all's takes.

Tyler T

Hey Sacred Crew, Im about 15 hours in on Blood of the Dawnwalker and it's awesome so far! I was never able to handle Witcher 3’s glut, but this is leaner and gives me that Eastern European vampire goodness, for which I am a sucker (no pun intended). That said, holy hell this game looks like shit, even in quality mode. There are moments where you say, "ok that's Unreal 5, that’s current-gen lighting," but in a sort of a “we just started development” kind of way. That’s why I was very excited to see that the game is selling well and a sequel is already underway. If they can deliver this level of writing and the vampire goods with a little more $$$, we could be in for one of the great sequels in gaming. Either way, this is a truly exciting new franchise from the looks of it, in an industry that has oddly struggled to find its footing in the vampire genre outside of Castlevania. Cheers!

KB

Hey Gents, I’m sure you’ve seen or heard about the massive Steam leak, which exposed achievements for games that were either previously unannounced or still many months away, including Fable, Final Fantasy Revelation, and Persona 6. My question is this: how cataclysmic would something like this have been if Sony were still pursuing its PC initiative, particularly for Naughty Dog? For the second time in a row, the studio could have had major story details leak before release, this time through snippets embedded in achievement descriptions. Another cycle of pre-release spoilers and speculation could have been absolutely brutal. What say you? Thanks

trephiroth

Colin, One of the many reasons why I resonate so much with Last Stand is because you Colin, like me are a completionist and play games differently than the majority of people. I write in to urge you, for just one single game, to release yourself from the shackles of OCD that have kept us subdued since childhood! That game is The Blood of the Dongwalker. Missing content strengthens the importance of character choice. Failure or initially undesirable outcomes create an even better experience, and the devs see to it that you will have a great experience when this happens. It is how the devs intended the game to be played. Play the ball as it lies. Embrace failure. Don’t be like the PC nerds with their mods that extend the amount of time allotted! I know that you know these things and that I’m not enlightening you by writing this, but I just want to hear your thoughts on whether you would consider it or not. Disco Elysium allowed me to break free from the burden of completionism, even if for but a moment. When I get to it after Onimusha, Dawnwalker will do the same. Save me Donald Dawnwalker. Save me.

Adrian Pinter

Hey gang, this write-in is to Colin specifically. How do you feel about the pronunciation of Onimusha in The Way of the Sword and knowing that you’ve been right in how you have said it all along, despite Gene talking mad shit about your pronunciation? What words do you have for Gene at this time? PS. I love Gene and wish him nothing but the best, just found this humorous and immediately thought of that while playing this stellar game.

Brent Lindquist

Hey fellas, despite the oncoming tidal wave of fall games, I was excited to see Edmund McMillen’s Mewgenics hit consoles this week. That excitement was hampered a bit when I learned that the console editions cost $10 more than the Steam version. I guess I’m just wondering why console players must shoulder the bulk of the holy penance paid for casting Chris Chan in a video game? As always, thanks for the show.

The Brownie Bro

Hey Gents Here’s a topic to stretch (or spread) your legs to. As a cybersecurity graduate, I like to stay informed about developing technologies within the space. While we’re all aware we are being constantly monitored by phones and toasters that require software updates, our TVs are listening to us as well. Have you seen the recent video from YouTube channel Gamers Nexus (no apostrophe Colin, I double checked) diving into how LG TVs capture audio and utilize it for advertising? These TVs utilize ACR, Automatic Content Recognition, to capture audio and send it to third party advertisers and other “partners” that also happen to be owned by LG. Even if you opt out of using the microphone and disconnect from your network completely, audio can still be captured and sent to LG. This introduces a multitude of avenues for bad actors to remotely connect to your network via your TV to collect personal data from your home or sensitive information within a C-suite conference room. The video also goes over how these technologies have digital locks on them and any circumvention can result in a copyright crime in accordance with the DMCA, so that’s cool. I highly recommend giving it a watch or listen while we wait for the EMPs to drop. Anyway, we live in the stupidest timeline. I charge you gentlemen with three Hail Herman Hulst’s and one recitation of “Power to the Players” as we slowly decline into the dystopian future our forefathers predicted Cheers!

Nicholai

If I had a nickel for every time a Sony employee was arrested for being a pedophile I would have ten cents. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice. Did you see what happened with The Price is Right host?

Timothy Martin

Hey C C and the big D, Colin, loved the discussion with Tom from Moores law this week… but can you explain something to me like I’m five? Why does physical media pose a greater risk to the network than digital media? I’m sure the answer is obvious, but I too am a Luddite with the technical side of things.

ZW

C-Sticks and the Dusty D-Pad, With Capcom continuing to excel in their craft, I have an interesting hypothetical; If Capcom could acquire either Square Enix or Konami’s gaming division, which would be more beneficial for Capcom? Conversely, which company getting acquired would gain the most from Capcom’s production and management expertise? Thank You, Zach

Cody Frost

Hey Colin, Dustin, and Chris! Blood of the Dawnwalker is out! (I'm loving it) My kids and soon-to-be wife are big Demon Slayer fans. When I explained the premise of Dawnwalker to my family, they immediately noticed some similarities. You have a male protagonist whose family is taken by monsters who gain power by drinking blood. Those monsters can’t go out in daylight, and the protagonist’s party includes one such monster who can miraculously survive in the sun. So, is this just “inspiration,” or has Rebel Wolves borrowed some pretty major plot points from Demon Slayer? Where do we draw the line between inspiration and straight-up stealing? P.S. I saw a comment on last week's show post about the "short" episode. It said "What is this a show for ants". I'm fine with whatever length the show is but I gotta say that's a A+/10 comment.

Anton Kaye

Hey Sacred Crew, Zelda's child character model is chopped. Link's character model looks like bad AI. Is it me or does it look like DLSS 5 was turned on for this one? Where is the art? Thanks and have a great weekend.

Trapgunner

This is a quick one for Colin. I decided to check out the live tv on PlayStation and discovered there is a whole channel dedicated to showing episodes of Cheaters 24/7!!

Hugo Medina

Hey CDC, Much has been said about how 1000 USD for a game console is like a mental barrier for the consumer but, if you take a look at the phone market you’ll see that the barrier was shattered years ago. If people are willing to spend more than 1000 bucks for a phone they’ll use for a couple of years before spending another 1000+, I don’t see why a similar price point for a console that would last about 6 or 7 years is out of the question. Thanks for all that y’all do. I’ll hang up and listen

Kraven Morcome

Hey Gents, With the massive Steam Leak happening I am a bit surprised by how early some developers are uploading these acheivement lists to the backend. I assumed most developers would not prioritize that until near the end of development, but this whole situation may cause them to rethink when they do it. Also, funniest leak i saw was a test acheivement that some developer put on the backend which said "I'm a chud, I'm a chud, I'm a big fat chud." They really are just like you and me.

Josh Harris

Waddado Colin, If a sick child used their Make-A-Wish to request that they be on an episode of Sacred, would you do it? Got to be the full 4 hours, and the main show. None of this matinée slot SS+ business. Extending this question also to Chris and Snark Tank. Best regards, Josh

Hashim Barakat

Good day, sacred friends. In the tradition of asking people how are they doing. I want to ask how are Micah and Holly doing? I hope Micah is excited about the new Nintendo announcements, and hopefully Holly is doing great with her new role as a new mother. Thank you for all the amazing content, and I wish you all a wonderful week as I lament the absence of a pulp fiction world in the KH4 leaks.

Kronic

What’s up CDC, Little bit of a sad post but over the Labor Day weekend my girlfriend broke up with me on our four year anniversary. No arguments or anything, just changed feelings on her end. On my way back to work on Tuesday we passed each other going opposite ways. I couldn’t do anything but laugh. When I got to work I started up an LSM pod to distract myself. Just wanted to say thank you to all of the crew for being there for those of us who just need a good distraction at times. You guys do more than you might realize. Let them hogs oink

Dead Tired

Good day gents. In reference to the digital foundry quote, I think this is a misinterpretation of what was said. I don’t think they were saying that some publishers see a majority of sales on physical games but rather that a majority of publishers themselves still see a return on physical. Maybe not a big return but a return nonetheless. Maybe I’m wrong but that’s how I heard it. Hope all is well.

ThePrinceMagus

Rally-Ho Sacred Gentlemen, I know it’s easy to hate on DLSS5 and AI-generated imagery, but it feels disingenuous to say that some of the older games we’ve seen run through this tech, like Red Dead Redemption or GTA 5, don’t look impressive or up to a modern standard. This got me thinking, with the ballooning costs of Western AAA development, and the tools/tech only getting more efficient, could the solution for these kinds of studios be scaling back teams to something similar that they were during the PS3 era, and making a finished game at that scale before tweaking it with a DLSS7? That way we could get back to having games at the scale of an Uncharted 3 delivered in a 2 or 3 year turnaround again, and the costs for development could even out to something reasonable once more. And I just want to reiterate, this is thinking of tech like DLSS5 as a tool, much like photoshop is a tool because doesn’t require you to go mix a bunch of paint if you want to make a painting. Hopefully even the staunchest of AI haters could consider this with an open mind. Thanks, and please take that chicken out to a nice seafood dinner every now and again.

Cotillion

Hi folks, another letter about digital "ownership". As a SW developer myself, I wanted to stay away from this discussion because both sides are really just simpletons throwing words around without an ounce of understanding of what they actually mean. But your last week reaction to the Sony court argument around ownership gave me pause. I thought you would try to do more research or just not be as shallow as most people but evidently I was mistaken. So here's the thing. Sony is right. By purchasing a game, you obviously do not own the IP. At most, you own the physical disk and hold the license tied to it. It's copyright law issue. Three things: 1) Software in copyright law has its own rules. With software, the integral part of actually using it is duplicating it onto your machine. On hard drive, into RAM, etc. That is why software has special rules and software products are usually licensed. This is a very deep rabbit hole that is in status quo since like 80s but this is the oversimplified explanation of it. 2) There is something called exhaustion of IP rights (in US may be known as first sale doctrine) that basically says that once a product has been lawfully purchased, the copyright owner cannot use its distribution right to control what happens to that copy. This is what gives you your ability to let a friend borrow your physical PS5 game, sell it and even ensures that Sony (or whoever else) cannot come to your house and take it away (well that and obviously myriad other laws). 3) Now to the crux of the issue. Changing the distribution method (physical vs digital) does not make a product automatically not fall under exhaustion. But it is also never explicitly stated that you can do all the things mentioned above. With physical, it is implicit that you can do all those things because the IP holder just cannot stop you. But it does not force the IP holder to provide you with the options to do so. Therefore as you can see this is not and never has been just license vs ownership issue. This is both a licence versus ownership issue and an exhaustion issue. The thing that needs changing first is defining explicitly that digital distribution has to provide the means for the customer to exercise the rights they already have implicitly (at least in EU - from my understanding, US currently does not treat perpetual digital license the same as physical, which would also need to change in that case). I hope this sheds some more light on the complexity of the issue. Regards, Filip PS: Not a lawyer, a software dev that dived into this rabbit hole long time before this became a thing. Also based in EU but to my knowledge, while details slightly differ in US law, the broad issue is similar.

BMJ614

Hello Fearless Leader, Bold Second In Command, and Unpredictable Wildcard Do y'all ever search out a game's multi-media? If you truly loved that game why wouldn't someone experience everything that game has to offer. From novels, TV shows, movies, board games and any other "bonus content" that game would bring into fruition. I for one went on a Borderlands YouTube rabbit hole cause I wouldn't be caught dead watching the movie, lol. So what say you, Weilders Of The Sacred Symbols, do y'all dig deeper and try to consume every aspect of y'alls favorite games? Take care and may your game time be efficient, exciting and everlasting ✌🏾🙏🏾

Jeff Barrier

Hello gentlemen, I just wanted to give a shout out to my courageous and wonderful wife Ashley. My son Rowan Alexander just passed away in the NICU yesterday after fighting for his life for nearly 7 weeks of complications from have a very rare birth defect called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. I could not have made it through the early morning doctor rounds and daily train rides to the hospital without my wife. She is my rock, and the perfect mother to our child. Nobody should have to bury their kid. The road ahead will be very tough but at least I will not be walking it alone. I love you Ashley. Thank you for our perfect boy.

An Inquiry From

Good morning and afternoon. Recently, someone wrote in regarding Sacred Symbols accepting codes. Colin, just use the codes. It helps your audience more to hear your opinions prior to release date. This “pride” of not accepting them just does not work anymore if EVERY OTHER HOST accepts them. I promise you your audience trusts you. Nobody cares if you paid for a game or not. Are they not business expenses anyway? You proclaiming every week that you do not accept codes does not make the show better. It only benefits you because you can act “above it all” and feel superior. Thank you for your time. Your show is wonderful.

Alex Porto

Hey CDC, today I'm going to be a downer. My fiancée lost her father on Sunday, and it's been extremely difficult. It truly is the worst thing that can happen to someone. I'll never forget holding Carol's hand and feeling her arm shake. It was unbearable. I wanted to write this to make João Luiz's loss felt by more people. If Colin reads this, Carol, I want you to know this: you are the light of my life. Everything good in my life is because of you. We are here for you, even the random dudes on the video game podcasts I listen to. It's only been a few days, but our lives have already been changed forever. But we'll get through this. Please, please, hug your loved ones.

Mexican Meat Rocket, formerly Terrorist Jerry

Hey CDC, Am I the only one confused by the Kyoto region of Onimusha? It kinda feels like Capcom was toying with several different level design philosophies and couldn’t decide what direction they wanted to go in. I was hoping for a more contained and focused Resident Evil style level design. Regardless, I’m still having an awesome time with this game.

Llogan from mmry.crd

Gentlemen, can we revisit the mozzarella hot dog revelation from last week? Colin wouldn't put marinara on the mozzarella stick hot dog because most marinara sucks... but would put KETCHUP on it? In the wise words of Tucker Carlson, "what's going on??"

NewJeans Haerin

For Colin: Upcoming record prediction for the Jets this season? As a Steelers fan, I’m anticipating a losing season for my side. Love from Japan ✌️

Sam

Hey guys, I wanted to write in and share something that’s been on my mind about Sacred Symbols and the recent shift toward getting early game codes. One of the things I always felt made Sacred Symbols unique was that you didn’t take early codes — you played games alongside the audience when they released. I don’t think I realized how much that mattered to me until Dustin mentioned playing Onimusha early. I’m really excited for that game and can’t wait to play it, but I have to wait until release. Normally, after I’ve spent time with a game and formed my own thoughts, I look forward to the next Sacred Symbols episode to hear how my favorite content creators felt about it. That’s always been a highlight for me. But when Dustin talked about the game briefly, I didn’t get that same feeling. Instead, I felt a bit left out because I hadn’t had the chance to play it yet — and that kind of sucked. I felt disconnected from what he was saying because I haven’t had an experience with the game yet and haven’t formed my own thoughts. I’m not entirely sure what to do with these feelings, because I know Dustin and possibly Chris want early copies for their own content, and I understand that. Still, it feels like Sacred Symbols isn’t quite the same “one of the boys” experience it used to be. I just wanted to express these thoughts because I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. Maybe we can implement a rule that no one gives their thoughts about a main stream video game until its out to the public, specifically on sacred symbols? I don’t know… Thanks for listening!

Dongwalker

Hey CDC, my question is for Colin since he is playing Blood of Dawnwalker. Do you think it’s very strange there is no stealth hardly at all in the game? It forces you to fight every enemy. I like the combat just fine, but it doesn’t make any sense why a vampire can’t stealthily take out all the enemies. For a game all about choice this is a huge misstep in my opinion. It’s really bothering me. What’s say you? Has this been bothering you as well?

Elliot

Gentlemen, I hope this finds you all well? long time listener here, I wanted to get your take on a personal battle between me and my wife… last week you talked about changing a towel, daily in Colin’s mum case. Today I wanted to get your fine men’s opinion on jeans. How often do you wash your jeans? Personally, I only wash my jeans two or three times a year, assuming I don’t spill something down them like food or drink, or shit myself. A well worn pair of jeans fit you perfectly, and washing them makes them tight and stiff. My wife thinks I’m gross, however my argument is that denim by its very nature is supposed to be hard wearing….did the cowboys wash thier jeans weekly…? I doubt it. Anyway, what do you guys think, am I smelly tramp, or does my wife just enjoy making me do more washing (or laundry, as you guys call it?) Much love, from Northern Ireland

Dustin’s Hot Mom

Hey fellas. What are your thoughts on self checkouts? My local Aldi recently removed them, which is an absolute travesty that has completely ruined my weekly grocery trip. Now I have to wait in this long ass line that takes 10 times longer than the self checkouts did. Interested to hear your thoughts.

David Wilson II

This one’s primarily a Colin question: With the NFL season back in full force, every team always clings to the glimmer of hope that comes with a fresh start. If the New York Jets do something crazy like make the playoffs, would the fan base even know how to handle it? Jets fans have endured so much sadness for so long, how would they process a feeling like happiness? Sincerely, “I hate this team”

Asap Biggie

Hey CDC, Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be doing this write in, but here I am. After 8 years of marriage, another listener, me, is getting divorced. Wife came home last week, said she wanted the divorce and left. Never saw it coming, I thought we were happy, and based on our Christian beliefs and what we always told each other, this was never an option. I’ve been listening to sacred for as long as our marriage was, so it only seemed right to write in. I’m 28, selling my house, and restarting my life moving to Richmond VA with my little brother (also a listener, shout out Nathaniel). Any advice for someone starting their life over both in career and romantically? Thanks guys, and I appreciate you making the worst week of my life just a little bit better

vince2077

Hey dudes, I wanted to get a discussion about video game innovation started. Ik Colin has already sort of hit on it on a recent show (I think on Summon Sign) but here lately I’ve noticed something strange about how people think about video game innovation nowadays. I know my write-in may sound simplistic, but hear me out. I’m gonna use Dawnwalker’s time mechanic as an example. I feel like that’s clear innovation. I mean, yeah, it’s been done before (in Fallout 1) but it’s not something that gets implemented in a lot of games. I don’t think people actually understand what innovation in video games is sometimes. It can take the form of old ideas, “tropes,” you may call them, and maybe the devs put a cool new spin on them. This medium is full of inspirations. I mean, pop culture as a whole is symbiotic, whether it’s movies, books, games, etc. But yet people cry and bitch about innovation, and yet a bad ass game like Dawnwalker gets crucified for it now i get the time mechanic can be intimidating but really its not that unforgiving but that's not the point. Anyways, ima go and sink my teeth in Anca’s neck. Happy hunting, dudes.

Austin from Rochester

Hey CDC. I have an urgent message for Chris. Chris was on Summon Sign lamenting the lack of Faulconer music on the DBZ blu-rays. Please let him know to stand down. He just needs to change the audio track from the default English 5.1 track to the English 2.0 track for the Faulconer version. That is all. Keep up the great content.

Ed H

Gentlemen, This might be a little longer than normal, but bare with me, it might be of interest. With recent reporting suggesting Sony has been experimenting with dynamic pricing again, I submitted a personal data request to see whether PlayStation was maintaining any sort of customer segmentation or profiling data on me. Disappointingly, that's not the kind of data Sony returns. What you actually get is an enormous spreadsheet containing account information, purchase history, online gameplay history, PS Stars activity, device registrations and various account metadata. In my case, Sony was able to tell me I'd spent just under £5,400 on PlayStation content since 2013, had 37 PSN friends, had earned 17,547 PS Stars points, completed 45 PS Stars campaigns, claimed over a thousand zero-cost entitlements through PS+ (or just random freebies like avatars), and that Helldivers2 and Space Marine 2 accounted for the overwhelming majority of my online playtime. What I found more interesting were the omissions. There were no login records, no IP history, no detailed friend list, no support tickets, no account profiling data, no marketing segments, no risk scores and no indication whatsoever of how Sony categorises me as a customer. If dynamic pricing is being driven by user segmentation, none of that logic appears in the standard export, and I may need to make a bespoke data request. There were also some oddities. Sony retains my full purchase history back to 2013, but gameplay history only stretches back to around 2020, and even then only online play is reported in the export. My PS3 appears twice in the device list for some reason. PSN subscription renewals show up in the transaction log, but the dedicated subscription sheet is completely empty, so that separate list may be reserved for other subscriptions, like EA's or Ubisoft's offerings. If Sony can tell me exactly how many seconds I've played Helldivers, then they certainly know what they think of my purchasing behaviour. Sony clearly doesn't want to make that sort of analytical data easy to obtain. My strong suspicion is that that data exists and is simply being excluded from the standard data export. I'll see how I can go about requesting that more in-depth data and report back if Sony will tell me. All the best, Ed H

MegaMatty

Hey Sacred leakers, Did you guys see the reporting this week that various games had their Steam achievements leaked through Exophase? This obviously sucks but is there a possibility that these leaks are somehow fake? Assuming they're real though, at what point in development is something like a trophy list created? Does the fact that some of these seemingly far off games have achievement lists already indicate that maybe they are closer than we think? Thanks, I’ll dodge Persona 6 and Judas spoilers, and listen.

Nevets

Greetings Sacred Gents, Have you seen the push back to Xbox putting hour limits on Cloud gaming? The backlash has been worse than Sony cancelling physical games! How long until Sony limits cloud gameplay sessions? How long until the say PS3 cloud streaming is unaffordable to them and remove that entirely? Love all that you do!

Oba

Hey boys, First-time question asker, long-time listener. This one’s mostly for Colin, after hearing you speak positively about The Blood of Dawnwalker, I broke down and bought it despite already being balls deep in Onimusha. I have to say that despite some issues over here on the PC side, I’m really enjoying it, but it’s honestly made me more excited to play The Witcher 3 again after the update on the 29th. That being said, in the busy year do you think you’ll go back to the Witcher, maybe even a platinum?

J Reid

Sacred Gents, I feel we need a deep dive discussion on the fact that cheese was not invented but rather was discovered. How did someone "Discover" cheese?! And what madness possessed them to randomly eat it to discover that it's not only not deadly but delicious? I'll eat an entire block of discovery while I listen.

Rudibager

Hello CDC, Colin, I’m going to try to keep this brief. 3D Megaman game, in a similar style to Returnal. The movement, the bullet hell elements, the platforming. They just need to get rid of the rogue-like aspect, and the randomly generated levels. Make the platforming a bit tougher. Make the boss battles glorious. Swap the creepy astronaut with Proto Man. Get an epic Dr. Wiley castle in 3D, with a modernized Dr. Wiley’s castle soundtrack. Or maybe Hyperion from Returnal can make a cameo appearance to cover the song in an eerie way. For NG+, let Rush transport you around to otherwise unreachable zones to battle some optional baddies. Ohhhhh yeah.

She Laufey on my Phranque til I'm gelatinous

Dear Sacred Gents, I'd like to issue a happy birthday, a congratulations on the soon to be born child, and a firm stand down to a friend and fellow listener James Turner. He's been a great friend over the years, most recently serving as a groomsman at my wedding and he's the only person I can talk to about sacred symbols. * Insert Colin to singing happy birthday * P.S. In what format is the chicken? dead, alive, cooked, raw?

CumOfDongwalker

Hello gents, Longtime first time (been listening to Colin's bullshit going on 16 years). I'm doing sober September, so am actually cognitively capable of writing in a comprehensive manner. It concerns Blood of Dawnwalker and its time mechanic. Within a day, modders on PC had modded the time system/limit out of existence. At what point is one changing the entire fundamental mechanics of a game to the point the core experience is nothing like what the devs intended? It's like having infinite inventory in Resident Evil, or having teleportation in Hitman, or invisibility in Splinter Cell. Even if one wants to "just experience the story and the world", the feeling of impending catastrophe is what makes those elements interesting. Anyway I'll shut my gape and take a bath with my microwave. Sincerely yours, Dan

chriiiiiiiiisss

Hey Coach Moriarty and our special teams duo, long-time stalker, first-time writing in. I'm a huge NFL fan, huge Atlanta Falcons fan — rise up — and Madden has been a comfort game for most of my life. I've played since middle school in '06 and purchased every title from Madden 10 through Madden 26, usually putting hundreds of hours into them each year. It was interesting hearing how impressed you've been with Madden 27. Honestly, it didn't surprise me. Madden 26 and 27 have made more progress than a lot of the games before them, and most people who pick Madden up for the first time in years seem to come away initially impressed. And I think your long absence from the series plays into why. You haven't played Madden in many years, so you're essentially experiencing a decade-plus of incremental improvements all at once: better movement, graphics, presentation, playbooks and Franchise systems. Meanwhile, longtime players experienced those same improvements one $60 or $70 purchase at a time, often wondering what exactly changed enough to justify buying another game. Ironically, Madden 27 and College Football 27 are the first EA football games I've actually held out on buying. It's become a running joke with my friends because none of them thought I had the willpower to do it. I've watched some streams, but I'm still holding strong. In fairness, I've probably threatened to quit Madden for five straight years and folded every time. Part of it is EA's recent acquisition. Part of it was watching EA introduce paid progression into Road to Glory and Online Dynasty in College Football 27 before backlash forced them to reverse course. But mostly, I've just been burned by these games for a very long time. One of my favorite examples of how absurd Madden can get is the Pro Bowl. In 2017, EA developers explained that implementing the Pro Bowl was difficult in part because Madden normally only needed helmet assets from two teams loaded into a game, while the Pro Bowl could require helmets from all 32 teams and exceed the console's available graphics memory. This was 2017. On the PS4. We couldn't load a bunch of football helmets? Really? We were playing the Pro Bowl on PS2-era Maddens, but somewhere along the way the feature disappeared and suddenly became too technically difficult. Then it returned in Madden 20 as an advertised Franchise addition, fitting another longtime Madden tradition: remove something, wait a few years, bring it back and advertise it as new. Granted, I'm not losing sleep over the Pro Bowl. The real NFL finally killed the thing this year too. It's just a perfect example of the cycle. And I could go on for hours with examples like this. For over a decade, huge portions of the playbooks barely changed. Madden 24 was one of the first titles in years where I remember feeling like EA was making a real effort to diversify them. Yet even now Madden 27 has playbooks carrying labels for coaches who aren't even with those teams anymore. Is there no intern who can find this stuff? Then there are the generic rookie faces. Longtime Franchise players have been staring at some of these guys across entire console generations. EA has sprinkled in newer faces over time, including more in Madden 27, but fans have joked that some of these fictional rookies should be retired NFL veterans by now because we've been drafting the same-looking dudes for so long. We've gone from PS3, through PS4, through PS5, and I wouldn't be shocked if some of these poor bastards survive long enough to get drafted on PS6. And this isn't even touching the atrocity that is Ultimate Team and what it's done to the franchise. Ask a lot of longtime Madden players when the game's priorities changed and they'll point toward the rise of MUT. Once EA had a mode generating recurring revenue through packs and microtransactions, it increasingly felt like Franchise was surviving on incremental improvements while MUT became the machine that had to keep running. But all of this leads to the thing I've really been thinking about since hearing you talk about Madden: Competition. The last time Madden had a legitimate licensed NFL simulation competitor was ESPN NFL 2K5, which famously launched for $20 against a full-priced Madden. Madden eventually cut its price, and months later EA secured the exclusive NFL simulation license. And look at the features football games were fighting over around that era: weekly radio shows, local news coverage for teams, create-a-play, player roles, owner modes where you actually managed your stadium, position battles, player mentors, tournament modes, Wonderlic scores for quarterback prospects, negotiating with player agents — features that sound like a sports fan's wet dream compared to what Franchise players beg to have today. Those games were actually trying to beat each other. And here we are more than two decades later, with Madden still having no fully licensed NFL simulation directly challenging it. College Football can compete with Madden for our time and attention, but ultimately both games answer to the same company. If EA collects your $70 either way, how much pressure is there for one team to truly embarrass the other, take major risks, or force the other game to dramatically improve? So how much do you guys think the lack of meaningful competition has hurt sports games? Madden is not alone in this issue. And Colin, do you think there's a chance your long absence from Madden is actually part of why Madden 27 feels so impressive? You're seeing more than a decade of improvements all at once. Longtime players paid for every tiny step along the way. I'm not saying you're wrong about Madden 27. It genuinely seems like one of the better year-over-year improvements the series has made recently. I just wonder if you'd feel differently if you'd bought Madden 17, then 18, then 19, then 20 and so on, watching those improvements arrive one $60 or $70 purchase at a time. P.S. Since you're rebuilding the Jets in Madden: how do we feel about the report that Woody Johnson killed a Jerry Jeudy trade because his Madden rating was too low? Maybe you've finally found your true calling running the New York Jets.

Lindsay Clancy's Rainbow Six

Wagwan gentlemen, What happened to video game music? I feel the quality on average has dipped recently. Notable exceptions aside; Doom Eternal, Final Fantasy, Metaphor Refantasio, I find it difficult to think of a game with a theme I can hum. Am I alone on this? Take care of that chicken and God save the King.

Timothy Kirk

Good afternoon gentlemen, with public sentiment of PlayStation heading into the crapper and Xbox doing everything possible to gain positive traction with gamers . Could Xbox at least pull even with PlayStation in market size in the upcoming console generation? Assuming both their console are within $100 price of each other . I know they can’t win ,but public sentiment is a strong market mover. Ask Nike who lost 80% market cap since their peak in 2021 due to their political stunts .

Trevor Cannon

Hey Fellas, I wanted to run a very strange gaming scenario by you guys that happened to me over the Labor Day weekend. I had started playing Mortal Shell II a few days earlier and was having a good time, but not enough to keep me going. Then I decided to jump over and check out the Onimusha demo and had a great time with that. The overall gameplay and the parry mechanic were very cool, and it did exactly what a demo is supposed to do… make me want to buy the game, which I did. So once the demo ended, I came back to Mortal Shell II to give it another shot... Well... apparently Onimusha unlocked something in my brain. I jumped back into Mortal Shell II and I was more aggressive, making better decisions, dodging like a madman and just absolutely wrecking shop. I made it all the way to the first wheelchair mushroom boss lady in no time and beat her ass like a drum. For context, I made more progress in those 2 hours than I had managed to make in roughly 3 days of playing before that. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever played one game and somehow come back to another game noticeably better? Or, even broader question... can playing other games actually improve your skills in a completely different game? Thanks, Trevor Cannon

Micah Ramey

Hey y'all, Is the era of remasters over? I can't go anywhere on YouTube without seeing my favorite classic games transformed into Instagram filtered, uncanny valley slop. With the majority of the reception I'm seeing being positive and my assumption that this would be a much cheaper way for developers to bring their games forward, is this really the future? Is this part of the reason that Bluepoint was terminated? As someone who loves how older games can be modernized while keeping the integrity of their core art direction, this deeply worries me. What do you guys think? Appreciate everything y'all do. May God bless you.

John

Colin - In the spirit of Blood of Dawnwalker: if you were forced to drink the blood from any one of your LSM coworkers, Coen style, from the neck, who would it be? (Micah is not an option).

Sam Ward

Hey CDC, Do you think we'll ever see Sony go further with their 1st party sports games again like in the 90s? Nowadays they only have MLB The Show but it was interesting to find out that in the early days of the PS1 they also had 1st party NBA, NFL and NHL games as well as the This Is Football series in Europe. I'll hang up and listen

Arsene

Colin, are you gonna get got by the new Mega Man Amiibo?

Kris Hendricks

Hey CDC, With Mark Cerny reportedly nearing retirement, I’ve been thinking about the incredible legacy he has built at PlayStation. He has always seemed like the smartest guy in the room wherever he goes (hearing him speak Japanese for the first time was a trip). He entered UC Berkeley at 17, but left school after Atari offered him a position, beginning a remarkable career that would also take him through Sega and Crystal Dynamics before a consultant to Sony and eventually becoming the principal architect behind the PlayStation Vita, PS4, and PS5. From the PS4’s developer-friendly architecture to the PS5’s revolutionary SSD and memory I/O system, Cerny has quietly shaped PlayStation across generations. That makes the upcoming PlayStation 6 particularly meaningful. If this is his final PlayStation launch, it feels like the closing chapter of an extraordinary career. So, what do you see as Mark Cerny’s biggest contribution to PlayStation? Is it a specific piece of hardware, his developer-first philosophy, or simply the influence he has had across generations? I will pick up my dropped rotisserie off the sidewalk and let the nefarious thoughts win. Cheers!

Zugdar

Quick note from last week. It was mentioned about bad fuel in post apocalyptic worlds is unrealistic and goes unnoticed which has always bugged me too. The Last of Us show did address that in a scene in season 1. Joel mentions that he had much better milage in the past. It's a little detail but a well thought out one none-the-less.

Thomas Connolly

Hey Sacred Crew, can we get some commentary on the White House’s decision to add an Arcade section to their website, which includes rip-offs of popular retro games such as Tetris and Snake, where the player has to build a border wall and deport illegal immigrants in each of those games. Should companies be suing the federal government over bastardizing their IP to push the Trump Administration’s agenda? After seeing the ad’s posted by the White House Twitter page, blatantly ripping off Zelda, I can’t help but feel that companies like Nintendo have a slam dunk lawsuit on their hands. Have an excellent end of summer boys, and keep on keeping on.

Asha Shwarma’s Karma

In this last week’s Sacred Symbols + episode, Tom Moore took the stance that while larger publishers might embrace a diskless, smaller developers with autonomy could take the stance of boycotting Sony. Isn’t the opposite playing out in front of our eyes. Doublefine was recently and unceremoniously granted their autonomy, and as a smaller developer composed of employees with opinions on the matter, the very first thing they did was put Keeper on PlayStation. Which I bought immediately. Certainly Doublefine could have taken the approach of boycotting Sony as well, but why on earth would they? They need the money, they need the marketplace. I find it less likely they decide to put Keeper on PlayStation as a fuck you to Microsoft, and more likely it was a rational financial decision. What say you? Signed, Tim Schaffer’s drawers after a Taco Bell bender.

Wall_of_Doodoo

Hey Fellas, When you are perusing thumbnails on Youtube are you more inclined to click on the ones of the content creator with his/her eyes bulging and mouth agape like their about to eat a fat schlong? Now that I think about it it's usually guys who do this as girls have a clear advantage and don't need to resort to such asinine behavior. It's very strange. Is their a scientific reason behind this that makes the video more appealing for viewers when the host likes a fucking carp? I actually find it irritating and make a point to avoid or hide channels that use this freakish tactic. I wonder if others feel the same or if maybe I'm in fact the imbecile. I'm going to hang up now and beg the President of the United States for help as the police bash in my window and drag my disillusioned ass from my vehicle.

vince2077

Hey dudes, I wanted to get a discussion about video game innovation started. Ik Colin has already sort of hit on it in the past (I think on Summon Sign), but here lately, I’ve noticed something strange about how people think about video game innovation nowadays. I know my write-in may sound simplistic, but hear me out. I’m gonna use Dawnwalker’s time mechanic as an example. I feel like that’s clear innovation. I mean yeah it’s been done before (in Fallout 1), but it’s not something that gets implemented in a lot of games. I don’t think people actually understand what innovation in video games is sometimes. It can take the form of old ideas, “tropes,” you may call them, and maybe the devs put a cool new spin on them. This median is full of inspirations. I mean, pop culture as a whole is symbiotic, whether it’s movies, books, games, etc. But people cry and bitch about innovation and yet a bad ass game like Dawnwalker gets crucified for it. Anyways, ima go and sink my teeth in Anca’s neck. Happy hunting dudes.

An always listening LG TV

Hey CDC, With the SteamDB achievements leak, it has given me some hope that some games are going to release sooner than we expected, or will release "on time", so to speak. Kingdom Hearts IV and Persona 6 are good examples. It has also leaked unannounced games such as a Ace Attorney vs Professor Layton PC port and a Shrek 2 game remaster. But most relevant and probably excitedly to you guys, Judas has appeared on the list. I think it's a safe assumption that it will not release this year, but perhaps next year is on the cards. If it does, I think 2027 could potentially be an iconic year in gaming. 87', 97', 07', and 17' have all been legendary years in gaming, and I'd like to think that this trend will continue with 2027. So what say you? I will look forward to hearing y'alls thoughts on a long car ride to San Antonio.

Arkantos

Yo I get there are a lot of reasons to be pessimistic about the PS6 right now especially in regards to pricing and how it will affect sales. While I think it's fair to assume a price near or above the $1000 mark is going to really affect sales in the mid to long term, is it possible that we're not accounting for the fact that it's now very advantageous to be an early adopter of new tech and holding out just means you'll be paying more money down the road as hardware prices keep rising? Personally I don't see this paradigm changing any time soon and I think people are overstating how poorly the PS6 is going to perform. The PS5 is still selling well enough despite it costing more than it did at launch 6 years ago. The ALL DIGITAL PS5 Pro is seemingly sold out everywhere (at least where I live and seems to be out of stock online). I get that's an after-effect of GTA 6, but if all it took was one game to get people on board with it despite the increased price and horrible press surrounding Playstation lately, then I think PS6 will be fine assuming they can get people excited about some fancy new tech feature and a good lineup of games.

Father Zachary Hale Cumsock

Lovely morning my dearest Colleene, hello Topher and Crustin, While I wholeheartedly agree that we don't need games by people who need AI, I think that mostly pertains to people who have no creativity or skills and actually need the AI to make the whole game for them. But what about creative people who have some or most of the skills but can't literally do everything you need for a game? Those who don't have money or connections to hire people to help with developing a game? I personally have a concept for a game that I want to make. While I'm not a professional artist, I'd still consider myself a pretty good one and I am confident that I can learn anything I need in the art department in a reasonable time frame. I can handle the game design and the story myself. I could probably learn to program but I have very little experience and on top of everything else it'd be a huge undertaking. And there's no way I'll be able to learn to make music to a satisfying degree. Finding reasonably skilled people who'd want to work on someone else's game who also can't pay them seems virtually impossible. I never have or want to use AI but I gotta say, the temptation is there. Thank you for all that you do! Greetings from Colin's favorite country, Germany!

Sechron

Hey CDC, does Capcom hate Megaman Legends? With another trailer for Megaman Dual Override from the direct, I remembered that Humble has a bundle for the blue bomber. As I went over the list I can't help but notice that they never went back to the Legends games. Will Capcom ever finish the Volnutt's story? Do they have plans to make remakes? Did they lose the master copies to port it over? Does anyone there even want to make a new entry in the series, or is Capcom still giving the middle finger to Inafune? I feel Capcom is letting an opportunity go to waste but what do you guys think? I'll hang up and listen

Jose Mauricio

Hey Colin, love the content! I wanted to point out a quick clarification regarding PlayStation's hardware subsidies. In your recent chat with MLID, you mentioned Noshino said they no longer wants to subsidize hardware. What he actually said was that they don't plan to sell hardware at significant losses. That distinction matters. They'll almost certainly still subsidize the PS6, just not to the aggressive degree seen in past generations.

Adam

Hey Dingdongs, I'm ill so have no idea what's going on - especially with recent Playstation news. Please enlighten me you Succulent Sacred Sausages. That is all.

KYisLife

Colin, Shawn Layten apparently said on Kiwi Talkz that PlayStation has historically struggled to sell two systems, so he’s skeptical about them doing a handheld and non-handheld. Do you agree and when will you get Layten on SS+??

Kazden Risk

Hey CDC. Everyone is complaining that the new Ocarina of Time remake looks like AI auto-upscaled slop but if it was cartoon-y they would complain it looks like Fortnite and if it wasn't changed at all they'd complain Nintendo didn't change enough. Should we nuke the entire world and go back to smacking sticks against rocks for entertainment? Cheers and take care.

Ryan Del Vecchio

Hi guys, I’m writing in because I’m finally approaching 100 platinums after popping trophies ever since June 2010. It all began with F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. First platinum being Uncharted 2: Among Thieves the following year. I just knocked out 94 and 95 with PowerWash Simulator 1 & 2 and then quickly did War of the Monsters for 96. The point of this write-in though, is that I’m trying to decide what should be my 100th platinum. I’m considering Astrobot (2024) because I just never got around to doing that but also because it just a big love letter to PlayStation. Though I also thought Halo: Campaign Evolved would be funny. They sadly have patched the LASO trophy exploit that Chris pulled but apparently there’s a co-op work around that is still possible. Anyways, if anyone wanted to help me out with that one, please reach out to me at imcharming325 on PSN to get those trophies out of the way and any other tough ones and then ultimately popping the final ones to make it my 100th platinum when the time comes. I’ll gladly help whomever needs it as well!! Thanks for reading if you chose my inquiry. Cheers and happy gaming to all. - Ryan Del Vecchio

Caleb Taylor

CDC, How is everyone enjoying Dawnwalker? I think it's excellent! It certainly has some issues (why do those titties look like PS3 titties?), but it was my most anticipated game of the generation and lived up to the hype!

Envydiel

Colin, As a 1990s forum kid, can you believe it's the year of our lord and saviour 2026 and we're still having the Ocarina of time vs Final Fantasy 7 argument? Give us 3 minutes reminiscing on those gamefaq arguments quickman311 was in. Peace ✌️

boogersupreme

Hello gentlefish, With the humongous Steam leak, is this the biggest leak in the history of gaming? With their being achievement details for Kingdom Hearts 4, Judas, Persona 6, and basically every game releasing in the next year and a half on PC, what is the repercussions of a leak this large? Rockstar and Naughty Dog have got to be thanking their lucky stars that they avoided this firestorm. Are there any games you are more interested in due to the details being out there or any games that you feel a little less likely to jump into based on leaks you've seen either on purpose or by accident? And to what extent have you guys looked at this stuff, if at all? I'm kinda bummed out about some of the big game reveals that could have been massive surprises and are now spoiled from this Nvidia like list.

Prostate? More Like The Shitoris

Greetings CDC, When it comes to developers admitting to using generative AI, which situation is worse in your opinion? Is it option A, the front end? - Like crystal dynamics creating tomb raider, when they admitted they use Gen AI in the concept phase and to create assets for testing only. They then claim to recreate and finalise everything “by hand” for the final product. Or is it option B, the back end? - BioWare for the mass effect remaster, or Square Enix broadly using Gen AI in the end stages to refine human made assets, QA and debugging processes. To me, there’s something more inherently wrong with replacing concept artists with AI. As a child I used to see my uncle’s hand drawn sketches and storyboards that would eventually be transformed into real life television commercials, and I always loved it. Finishing the last of us and unlocking that concept sketch art invoked so much of that for me, and I can’t imagine feeling anything if it unlocked the prompts or first-pass slop they used in place of genuine creativity instead. I don’t want texture artists or anyone else in those final stages to go without work either. I find both justifications unsatisfactory, but wanted to hear your thoughts. Links below to sources Cheers https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/square-enix-says-it-wants-generative-ai-to-be-doing-70-of-its-qa-and-debugging-by-the-end-of-2027/ https://gamesbeat.com/bioware-used-ai-upscaling-to-remaster-mass-effects-original-textures/ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/crystal-dynamics-using-generative-ai-for-early-prototyping-but-finished-content-is-human-created

Paul Andrew

Hey Sacred boys, I was usually a 90 percent digital purchasor, 10 percent physical. Since Sony's update in July, I've mainly bought physical games and I was surprised by a positive effect. I'm finishing and focusing on my games better. I know there are a lot of other distractions, but do you think to move to digital could be part of why people struggle to finish or focus on a single game?

Surge!

Hey boys, Remakes. I say this knowing it's a worn-out topic, and that I'm in the minority, but I can't keep my peace together. I just don't get them. The recent trailer for the Ocarina of Time remake prompted this write-in. For something that is supposedly beloved and integral to my generation's childhood and the development of 3D games as we know them, why are so many people applauding a brand new identity? For the record I'm not looking to demean the happiness of others if this game or any other remake provides that happiness for them, god bless, but I think we're hung up on the wrong things that have since become the default markers of a good game. Perspective and context, for the way in which games had to be made during a time of limitations, seems lost, and in its place is this notion that high fidelity and new content can improve upon the influence of any previous game. I know this is a Nintendo game but I felt the subject matter was broad enough to include on the show given the safe business practice of remakes across all platforms. Am I onto something or am I the old man yelling at the clouds now? Thoughts. Apologies for the lengthy write-in; usually I just ask how your flowers are doing Colin.

Alex Gates

Hey CDC, I’ve always liked sports (grew up watching whatever football or basketball game my dad would have on) but I never really followed or got invested in a team. Soccer, on the other hand, has always been my favorite sport. So last year I started following Austin FC. I’ve really enjoyed watching all their games, getting invested, and actually caring. However… I bought a jersey of my favorite player from last year at the beginning of this season and, low and behold, he got traded a few weeks ago… I obviously knew this happens in sports but having it happen personally to me by some cruel god to spite me and my new fandom, I gotta say it sucks. That and the fact that Austin FC is in second to last place in their conference standings feels like I’m joining sports fandom at rock bottom… I’ve really enjoyed the ride so far and don’t plan to stop, but fair warning to all those who are wanting to get into sports cause your heart will be broken…

elvis lewis

Hey cdc, This one is for Colin, what’s up with the blatant disregard for Lillymo’s new game Ravenous Greed? I haven’t seen a single tweet or even a mention of it on the show. Are you no longer part of the company? Did u and Barry have a falling out? Or did you have nothing to do with this game being made and could give two shits about it? Thanks for all you do I’ll hang up and listen now.

Dylan James

Hey guys, Writing in for the first time with a small but potentially interesting correction. On a recent episode when briefly discussing Gran Turismo, Colin mentioned that one of its sim style racing game competitors, iRacing, had recently been released on PS5. That release on PS5 is actually "iRacing Arcade", which is a much more casual arcade racer. It was developed by Original Fire Games, and is essentially an iRacing themed reskin of their previous game "Circuit Superstars". iRacing (the company) did act as the publisher though! They've actually published a few console titles recently: World of Outlaws Dirt Racing, Exocross, Nascar, and an upcoming Indycar game. As a someone who's sunk far too much time and money into their core PC sim, I’d love to see a console port. But its subscription pricing model, mouse-heavy UI, and complex peripheral support make it highly unlikely.

Five Bathrooms

Hey DCC, What games have been your biggest disappointments relative to how excited you were for them? For me, it was skate. I was extremely excited when it was announced. I loved all three of the original games, and after waiting more than a decade for another one, I figured there was no way they could fuck it up that badly. Especially with some of the original devs returning. Unfortunately, I was disappointed almost immediately, and honestly, even before release. Between the microtransactions, the Fortnite-ification of the art direction and game design, and stripping away so much of the skate culture and pro-skater identity that made the originals feel authentic, I can’t put into words how far short it fell for me. But the thing that really broke me was something Chris mentioned before: hearing “Press X to push off!” delivered in that aggressively supportive, condescending young-adult voice. It struck me to my balls. After a while, I just muted the game. And yet, because apparently I have no principles, I kept playing. I even fell victim to buying whatever the fuck fictitious currency they were peddling while grinding toward the good part of the map. I did all of this in the desperate hope that Saudi EAbia might keep my precious skate franchise alive long enough for it to eventually become something I actually want to play. I imagine I’ll be waiting a long while longer. So, what game disappointed each of you the most, especially one you were genuinely excited for? Did you eventually make peace with it, or are you still bitter about it years later? Thank you for all you do. And Colin, I’ve started holding water in my mouth for long periods of time.

Young shot Colin Moriarty with a 50 cal sawed off

Howdy sacred boys, no mans sky has released yet another massive update that could essentially be a paid expansion to their now 10 year old game. Genuinely how does Hello Games make money because they just keep updating what could be miltiple different games into one game for free?

DaveyBoyPlays

Howdy boys, one thing I found interesting during these steam leaks is that Gears of War E day has a achievement for collecting all over achievements in pretty sure the other Games don’t have this.. it’s a PlayStation way of getting all of the achievements..So is this proof enough that Gears was actually pulled from PlayStation.? Love your work keep up the good work

MrsPuffsHairCurlers

Hello Sweet Succulent Sacred Boys, Did anyone see Breaking Benjamin went on a tangent about his Fallout4 mod during a concert? Benjamin told the crowd to download his mod to boost his numbers because a modder called it shit. I’ll now go listen to Blow Me Away and play Halo 2.

Jonathan Turner

Colin and Dustin, With how well Colin knows Rush and Treble, and how well Dustin knows his pup, I have a hypothetical for you guys. Imagine your dogs were suddenly turned human and made head of PlayStation. They’re given the job for just long enough to greenlight remakes of a few dormant Sony IPs before turning back into dogs. Based entirely on their personalities and how well you know them, which dormant PlayStation franchises do you think they’d bring back? Basically, I want to know what the Rush, Treble, and Dustin’s pup era of PlayStation would look like.

Lou Sassle

Boys, Have you seen the latest round of AI generated images from our wonderful dear leader? I’m sure it’s given Chris tons of material to work with. Love ya, Gay man

Nathan Urquidez

Hey CDC, one of the GEICO guys writing again. Just wanted to shout out the guy at the UPS store. I talked to him and bit and when I started to leave, he said “nice shirt”. I looked down and I was wearing my Sacred Symbols shirt. He goes around the corner and I say “hey, stand down”. I hear him chuckle. You might recall this is how I met my fellow GEICO friend Cody with the same Sacred Symbols shirt a few years back. UPS guy, don’t let people keep taking too much time off at your expense. Hopefully you’re hearing this. Be well.

running jester

Gday CDC podcast factory, I keep thinking about games as a service and I can’t understand why everyone keeps going to the pvp as an option rather than focus on pve first. I know there are exceptions but those exceptions rock. Helldivers 2, Destiny, the division. Even the current friendslop games are just an excuse to play with others without having to feel like you need to live in the game to not feel shit about yourself. I know the investment is higher but there seems to be a big gap for the big pve game people can play together. I mean housemarque making dead nation 2 as a third person game with minor rpg mechanics just makes sense. I know this might anger you but I feel this appeals to the mass market more. Am I missing something or “is it the kids who are wrong”? Cheers and shower beers Running

Kellen Kensinger

Hello gentlemen. What the actual fuck is going on with PlayStation? It was just announced PHYSINT will now be published by XBOX after kojima said that PlayStation gave notice that the game would be cancelled in mid June. Will this have a long term impact with the relationship between PlayStation and Kojima. I just don’t understand what they’re doing man.

Jeff in NOLA

Hi CDC, With the PlayStation/Kojima/X box news just breaking, who the hell is making decisions at Sony? Company seems completely lost at this point with very little longterm thought going into their planning. Best, Jeff

Jeff Willingham

Hey CDC, what is with Xbox now publishing Physint instead of PlayStation? I’m not sure I can remember a situation like this before. As someone who primarily plays on PC I’m fine with it but just feel confused about it all. Curious to get your thoughts. Thanks as always and take care.

Shortsoptional

Hey Boys, Multiple first party misses, a botched announcement of ending physical discs, a middling State of Play and now a huge botch of one of the most beloved auteurs who is now entering in to a partnership with Xbox. My simple question is: What the fuck are they doing over there at SIE? We joke that we could do a better job off the street but this is no longer a joke. Do they give a shit about their most loyal fans anymore? Sure a shit doesn’t feel that way. I’ll go shove a Bloodborne copy up my ass and think about that Kotor remake announced 5 years ago. Thanks.

Zac

Sup sacred boys, I'm sure you saw that Xbox is now publishing Physint and Kojima confirmed that PlayStation tried to cancel it entirely. My question to you is this: did PlayStation see the hole that Xbox had dug themselves into and say "I can dig deeper"? To completely screw a beloved figure in the gaming industry like Kojima is beyond the pale. I'll eat my popcorn and listen!

Stormworn

Hey, folks. Simple question for you all. Would Physint being exclusive be the biggest Xbox coup since the 360?

BigDumbStupidIdiot

Hey C-men and "looks like 7 inches at the correct angle" D; What the fuck is going on with PlayStation? How do you give up publishing the new Kojima and let Asha publish Physint along with its film and tv show? The vibes literally couldn't be worse. Herman Hulst and his cronies need to have their contracts terminated for cause. They're actively killing the brand.

Bryan Mada

Hey CDC, I think with the announcement of PHYSINT no longer being a collab with PlayStation, I think it is safe to say that being a Playstation fan is horrible right now. I've played other consoles and handheld GBA, GameCube, 360, and PC, but Playstation has been my one constant family. Going from the PS1 all the through the Vita and PS5. First party studios are now one a generation (besides Insomniac). Bend and MM are MIA, Santa Monica are now locked to being the GoW studio and nothing else, Naughty Dog is releasing Intergalactic maybe 2027-2028, which would mean their next game would be mid 2030s if not later. Are they just setting all this up to have the next person to take over PS going to be our version of Asha Sharma? Someone who is going to have to steer this massive ship get everything back on track. Just seems like everything PlayStation has been doing lately account security, stopping physical games, walking away from Kojima, shooting Bluepoint right between the eyes is just making it harder to be a PlayStation gamer. Thanks lads and hopefully little Leon will be caught up with One Piece by the end of the week.

AstroParrotKing

Hello, With the announcement from Kojima that PlayStation was seeking to cancel PHYSINT, what is happening to PlayStation? Each week seems like a new low for this company, but will the momentum they have built keep them going? I stopped buying games on PlayStation given the discless future. What do y’all think? I’ll hang up and go play my retro games because at least Sony can’t take those away from me.

Kris Hendricks

Hey CDC! This is hot off the presses via the one and only, Geoff Keighley: “PlayStation has announced it is stepping away from its collaboration with Hideo Kojima on PHYSINT.” How can this be?! I am returning to my corner of shame to listen.

Dante Martins

Help folks PlayStation is becoming impossible to defend or even being related (liking) it They literally let kojima walk and physint is now Xbox branded This pissed me off more than when I found my brother using my mom underwear I can’t take this anymore folks. Please kick the whole head team of PlayStation. Xman looks awful and now this Jesus Christ I’ll finish eating my opossum ramen and listen

DazzaDoesGames

Howdy from Australia, Physint has been dropped by Sony and picked up by Xbox. Do you think Death Stranding sales had an effect on this, the potential budget or how the development timeline is going so far? From a mindshare perspective do you think that PS6 is at a point where it's a cause for concern? Thanks, I'll hang up and listen.

Cameron

Hey guys , So breaking news that PlayStation is stepping away from Kojima and Physint and it is now partnering with Xbox. This seems out of nowhere, and just more bad press for Sony. Was Kojima taking too long, or should we launch Herman Hulst out of a cannon into the sun? I’ll hang up and listen.

Austin Clemence

Hey CDC, What in the world is going on with PlayStation? With the announcement that Kojima and Physint have moved to Xbox and that Sony wanted to cancel the project, I think some serious changes need to be made yesterday. They just burned a bridge they’ve had for 30 years. But it’s ok to give Concord $400 million or whatever it was. This one hurts worse than Factions getting cancelled in my opinion. What do you guys think? As always love the content and keep up the great work.

Adrian Pinter

Hey gang, what is going on at PlayStation? It’s like they’re purposely trying to ruin any and all goodwill they have with their fans and the recent news about PHYSINT and their plan to shut production of the game down before Microsoft swooped in to save it is the icing on top of this shit cake. From an outside perspective, PHYSINT seems to be the exact game PlayStation would want. A cinematic and narrative heavy action espionage game with plenty of cross media potential. So I ask again, what is going on at PlayStation?

The Diddler

Hey guys, Do you think Death Stranding 2’s performance is part of the reason, if not the reason, why Sony decided to end their partnership with Kojima? Seems like Sony didn’t believe in Kojima’s vision.

Kenneth Washburn

Hello CDC. I have listened from the beyond days. I have never ever written in to any podcast or show. However. The latest news about Sony ending their partnership with Kojima productions has compelled me. This is truly the unthinkable. What is going on at playstation? Do you think this has something to do with Kojima’s comments on physical media? Or has Herman Hulst truly overstayed his welcome? I’ll shit my pants like Johnny in MGS 4 and listen.

Matheus Garcez

Hello beautiful boys, I’ve never written before but after this news with Kojima I just gotta say fuck Sony and this inept leadership. Just one mistake after the other. Really disappointed with the brand and the ps6 might be the first PlayStation I don’t buy. They really don’t see the value in the hardcore audience, I honestly hope the ps6 fails harder than the Wii U.

Snake's Badonkadonk

Hey CDC! I bought a PS2, a PS3, a PSP, and a PS4 mainly for Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid games. I hope Physint is on Series X or can run on a 4070. Otherwise, I'm buying a Helix. Kojima is that important to me. I'll go enjoy my rat poison laced Kool Aid now!

Zack Apuzzo

I can deal with no discs, I can deal with studios shut down. I cannot deal with Sony trying to cancel physint. Say it with me. Fire Herman Hulst.

RoughSlpr

Long time first time Does Sony think they’re completely beyond reproach? That none of these recent moves pissing off their most dedicated fans won’t impact them at all in the long run? I get it, they make most of their money from free to play slop. However these games can be accessed anywhere along with most of the purchases associated with them. What is to prevent Apple from dropping a $4-500 TV box with an older binned chip that can play it all?

Matt Kuryloski

Hello epic gamers, Do optics no longer matter to Sony? With the news that Physint was headed for cancellation and is now going to Xbox, it’s starting to feel like every decision by Sony is purely numbers-driven. Everything that isn’t a surefire 10+ million seller seems to be on the chopping block, which I imagine was the prediction with Physint. Will all the recent bad Sony PR translate to lower PS6 sales, or will its place as the “standard” console mean these moves all won’t matter in a few years, and we can just expect no risk (and less fun) from Sony? Wishing you guys all the best from Sunny Philadelphia, Matty

Connor Gassien

Hey Solid Colin, Liquid Chris and Solidus Dustin What are your thoughts regarding PlayStation pulling its funding from Physint? Do you think this is a sign of a change in PlayStation strategy or did DS1 and DS2 simply underperform by PlayStation standards? Either way it seems like another in a long line of PR black eyes for Sony. I know for myself that PlayStation is becoming less and less attractive as a platform and the loss of potentially the only exclusive that really drew my eye and will now be everywhere just solidifies my move to PC for next gen. Additionally do you think Kojima will return to his vindictive ways when discussing PlayStation a la his initial departure from Konami? P.S. Dustin is lucky I remembered about Solidus because he was almost Gassy Dustin

Ryan Betson

Hey gents In a genuinely shocking turn of events PlayStation have announced the closure of their working relationship with Kojima and Kojima Productions for Physint, and now it has moved to Xbox. A theory rolling around is that it’s connected to the removal of physical discs. It could be about discs, but Xbox players don’t buy discs or games for that matter. Although the Death Stranding series is unquestionably fantastic, it didn’t really make the money PS likely wanted. So, Kojima could have needed more money for Physint & they said no… then Xbox opened the wallet. Is this another sign of PlayStation falling apart?

Tommy… the sniper.

Hey guys, Is Sony having some kind of fucking brain bleed? Do they believe that they have become untouchable? The Kojima news seems to be yet another rake they’ve stepped on in their yard seemingly made of rakes. With Hulst still there but out of the picture from the looks of it, are they starting to suffer from a real lack of leadership? If PlayStation were a ship, I would honestly say they’re lost at sea, completely directionless. Thanks for the great show as always.

William Fellows

Playstation canceled the Physint partnership in June and now Kojima is partnered with Xbox. It's time to hit the panic button because things are looking very bleak. If we operate under the assumption Hulst isn't making decisions anymore Playstations new "Taste maker" needs to go. My question is this, How many "Smart business" decisions that alienate fans can Playstation stack before it all comes crashing down?

A 388 Foot Man

RIP Jets legend Sam Darnold :( On a more serious note, how about Drew Lock and his big dick stepping up for the season opener? The Superbowl rematch was nearly as mediocre as the Superbowl was last year if not for the end of game and personnel drama. Can't wait for the jet lagged teams in Melbourne to clash tomorrow. The NFL is back, baby! Please, give Micah the condolences from this Seahawks fan. GGs, kinda..

Dave

Hey guys, Reeling here from the Kojima news. Colin, I’m curious about whether you think there’s a point where all this goes too far. (Maybe not for you personally, but a significant percentage of the audience.) The math doesn’t seem to work for the number of heavy-hitter developers remaining and the timescales of modern game production. What if Xbox Next is significantly more powerful? What if the handheld bombs? The intertia-effect of Sony being my home is strong, but I’m a handful of good exclusives away from moving on come the generation turnover. Peace be upon you all

Judah Bailey

Hey Boys, Looking forward to the next State of Play where we see live footage of Herman Hulst getting the boot. Seriously though, something’s gotta give! When Destiny got shuttered, it hurt, but it made sense. When the physical games announcement happened, that really hurt, but hey, maybe most of us are just stubborn old fucks and are behind the times. Now you’re gonna drop Kojima?! I think Ace Ventura said it best: “Three darts is too much!” My thoughts are everywhere, but I’ll say this to Sony. GOOD FUCKING LUCK trying to sell ANYBODY on Fairgame$, 4:LOOP, Hunter’s Gathering or whatever bullshit you think you’re cooking if you think you’re going to cancel PHYSINT. Do you not remember what happened to the last publisher that spurned Kojima? Boys, please give me 30-45 minutes on just how fucked the scene is at PlayStation. I’ll get back to finishing my PlayStation backlog for good, and listen. P.S. I’m dead serious about getting an Xbox next gen, that’s the kind of motion Kojima has.

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

Hey CDC Do you think people are overreacting about the Physint. People are saying Sony is crazy but to me it sounds like they didn’t want to fund a crazy high budget game when they won’t own the rights to the IP. nor will it come out for 5 or 6 more years, so it would be a long road for them to recoup any of the money they sink into it. I get it’s a kojima game and I love his work but this seems more like they don’t want to sink so much money into a project that’s a generation away from release. Curious to here your thoughts

Benthegamer

What’s up guys. Just because I know the sales argument will be brought up, of course a game like Death Stranding isn’t going to do gangbusters. Stealth espionage action from the creator of Metal Gear? Now that’s a different story. The question is this, what the hell are we doing here?

Phil Jenkins

Hey CDC, Having just received my code for the Crazy Taxi 3 closed network multiplayer test, I was wondering if any of you would be checking it out this weekend to see how it fares. Pun intended. Thank you for all the amazing content, here's hoping for many more years to come.

Dwyfi

Hey Colin and his two sons. First time in a long time writing in. Just wanted your opinion on what the hell Sony was thinking, going to cancel Physint, and pretty much let Kojima shop the game around to other publishers! Are they that smooth brained over there to not realize what they had! I get that death stranding wasn’t for everyone. But if it was going to be a spiritual successor to metal gear, you know that’s what people have been dying for him to do! This pretty much has confirmed to me that Herman rode the short bus to school, and PlayStation has lost its way. Sorry I’ll put my car into neutral and slowly ride off this cliff to my doom like Sony is doing and listen.

OurHero713

Hey Triple Triad, Sony and Kojima announced that they are stepping away from their partnership over Physint, and now Kojima will be partnering with Xbox instead. Is this a sign of things to come for many of Sony’s other partners? We’ve already seen this with Arrowhead over the Helldivers 2 debacle. How many more will see Sony as a precarious partner? Keep doing a wonderful job. I’ll hang 10 and listen

Andykapped

Hello good sirs, Colin, just wanted to say R.I.P Barry Melrose. Keep up great work

michael studer

Hey CDC, we must discuss the rapid decent Sony is going down in the PR world. From physical discs, to terrible “licenses” legal arguments, a rough state of play, now the news stories from their competitors are taking center stage. Nintendo with ok-good directs with Zelda 40th and such. Just shortly after Xbox publishes a disc to digital program, now they are the proud owners of Kojima’s next game Physint. At first i didn’t think much of it but after hearing Kojima say Sony was going to cancel this game unless they found someone else made my jaw drop. The PR cannot get worse, can it? Will Herman Hulst pay for his crimes against gaming humanity? How could top Sony brass say no to a new Kojima game? Didn’t Sony just end a state of play with Physint as their final announcement? I will hang up my big boss, while showing my wife whose boss, and listen.

Jackson Wilburn

Hey CDC! I have been listening to Colin since the Beyond days and this is my first write in. Assuming PlayStation decided to part ways with Kojima Productions due to ballooning budgeting costs I imagine purely from a financial standpoint the move makes sense. What baffles me is after releasing both Death Stranding Games, Playstatjon knew exactly who they were dealing with. Surely they knew this move would be at the expense of what little goodwill they have left with the hardcore. If PlayStation can make most of its money from casual gamers who primarily play GTA, Call of Duty, 2K, and Fortnite, what is the long-term consequence of repeatedly alienating the hardcore fans?

Xbox's Sloppy Seconds

Hello! How sbout that Kojima drama? Sounds like Sony is no longer interested in supporting cross platform, high-risk high-reward projects. Knowing the sublime palatte of Sony's tastemakers I believe we are in for one hell of a ride into next gen!

Cody Jones

Boys PHYSINT…..what the fuck Thank you for writing in

Angel

Hello CC and D from the basement No question, just a comment. I loved DS1+2. Im sure Physint will be a great game. But Kojima cant spend the money he does to make games, then not outsell astrobot. Thanks for all the appropriately priced content.

Bjorn Campbell

Hello Sacred Sirs The LSM crew are a prime example of being hated by a bunch of losers is a small price to pay for not being one of them. More football sports talk please I need to think it’s my time to shine working for an NFL team and all.

David Kopman

Hey CDC, Following the news of Sony cancelling Physint (and thankfully Xbox saving it), is this a larger sign of their changing strategy away from publishing and developing narrative games? As Colin has mentioned, we’re not the target market for PlayStation anymore and the real money lies in games as a service. Is it possible the risk and expense associated with developing these expensive, deep single player games is no longer worth it for Playstation? Perhaps they continue to close studios or maybe even sell/spin them off while licensing the IP going forward? Curious to hear your thoughts as we continue to see a different Playstation take root…

Dave

Hey guys, quick check on the health of first-party. What are you most looking forward to? Fairgames, Hunter’s Gathering or 4Loop? Bring on 2027!

ShinyRyuji

Hey sacred crew now I’m not usually the one to say people need to lose their job but with this Kojima news wtf is Herman doing? And make no doubt it’s him. I had to be!!!!

Quantum Radish

Hey CDC, Can we imagine a future for a minute where Xbox has Physint, Elder Scrolls 6, and Fallout as console and PC exclusives? With roughly six years left on the current 10-year multiplatform agreement for Call of Duty, that could be on the table as well. I know Microsoft’s business model has shifted dramatically over the last few years, but can you honestly say that locking down its biggest IP for the Helix would not have an impact? Sure, it would mean giving up some incoming revenue from PlayStation, but Microsoft is not exactly struggling for cash, and gaming hardware is clearly the part of the business that needs the most attention. Why not go all-in on investing in the Xbox brand and its future? If Microsoft could absorb the short-term hit and hold out long enough, could it eventually put serious pressure on Sony? Would you buy a console if they hypothetically did this? Thanks for the great content, have a great weekend!

Red Head Redemption

Hey SS crew, With the news about Kojima taking Physint over to Xbox and rumors that Sony tried to cancel it; is it fair to say Sony is trying to rid itself of anything Herman Hulst approved at this point? Thanks and take care.

ItsShaneBailey

G'day CDC, Turns out the Kojima name (ph)isn't enough to justify the asking price for his next big action-espionage blockbuster. The main questions are: what changed at PlayStation between Physint's announcement and now to warrant this withdrawal of funds? What does this say about PlayStation's exclusive strategy? Is this the latest in contributor to PlayStation's theoretical 'death by a thousand cuts' or will it do nothing to impact PlayStation's market dominance?

NinjaDC

Hello CDC, With the recent news of Playstation parting ways with Kojima, I have been wondering one question. Is it really Hulst's fault anymore or are we in a new dark age of *Sony* leadership of PlayStation? Hulst & Ryan's era of PlayStation was defined by backing the wrong horses, but still similar with Yoshida's PlayStation. Just the 9-in-10 hits to misses ratio being flipped to 1-in-10. However, the recent questionable leadership has had a much different flavor. It feels like executives from Sony, like Hiroki, are getting much more hands on and treating PlayStation in a similar way to a private equity company. Shifting from a growth mindset to extraction. Decisions like killing discs to boost long term revenue feels like a decision from finance and investment leadership, and not entertainment. Same with cutting ties with a hard to work with artist like Kojima. The exact kind of leadership that fired him at Konami.

MnTwinsfan92

Hey gents, I think Sony is trying to ruin a fanbase much like my beloved Minnesota Twins, in 2023 they won their first playoff series in nearly 20 years. Followed that excitement with cutting team salary. Then the Twins didn't do anything at the '24 trade deadline and had an epic collapse, '25 more salary cuts, and biggest selloff in MLB history trading 11 MLB players. Coming into this year, the fanbase was irrate with owners and looking like they'll have the lowest attendance since their stadium was built in 2011. We're apathetic fans now. All this to say, every decision Sony has made this Gen has bled me of any faith in the company or brand. Physint, on top of discs, on top of closures and cancellations. Enough is enough. Sorry for the long write it, but I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Luke

Hey CDC, There's been a lot of talk on the show recently about who Sony is trying to appeal to. It seems clear that they are focusing on "customers," rather than fans. For the most part, this is a reasonable conclusion. However, with the recent news of Sony attempting to cancel Kojima's spiritual successor to Metal Gear, I can't help but wonder if they have any concept of how reputation, or good will, is an intangible asset. In my view, the "customers" that Sony are choosing to focus on are incredibly fickle. Their purchasing decisions are driven largely by word of mouth, i.e., what console their friends have or which console is deemed "cool" to have (just look to Apple as the most obvious example of this). This word of mouth is intimately correlated with a company's reputation. Coming out of the PS4 generation, Sony had a reputation of being the prestigious place to play games. I believe this perception had more to do with the success of the PS5 than any concrete feature the console had. How can Sony realistically expect to court such fickle "customers" with their current reputation? How are they going to ask someone who doesn't trust them to spend $900 on their console? Keep consensually consummating your marriage to that chicken.

Jake DeLoma

Greeting Tar-men, I’m sure the biggest news this week will be the story that broke late Wednesday night - Kojima productions has deepened their partnership with Xbox after Asha came in and sniped Physnt away from Sony after they said they will no longer be moving forward with it. Even if Sony dropped them for financial reasons, assuming it was because Sony wrote blank checks for Kojima for Death Stranding 1 and 2 with the ladder only selling around 2 million copies, could this be the worst possible time to drop a partnership this culturally important? While I’m still not convinced Xbox could make any noticeable comeback with Asha taking over, they’re obviously restructuring and investing money into what seems like one last big push to revive the brand. Getting a Kojima partnership for 2 games, and according to the Xbox wire post, movies and Television as well, will undoubtably be a huge win for Xbox during this reconstruction era for them. What is Sony doing? With Hardware costs rising, shouldn’t Sony double down on focusing on their software? Insomniac and Sucker Punch seem like their only studios that have been making them real money this generation. Naughty dog looks like it will be skipping this generation at this point and not have a single PS5 exclusive (assuming Intergalactic will be on PS6 and PS5). Saros sales seem lackluster and certainly has not made its money back, Bungie will forever be a financial hole for Sony, the list goes on. You would think that even if their partnership with Kojima hasn’t, quite literally, “paid” off, that a new game with him going back to his metal gear roots would be quite the system seller and should certainly be the one they would absolutely want to be investing in. I just got a little closer to believing that Xbox can make somewhat of a comeback if Sony keeps fumbling their PR and canceling projects/closing studios. I’m still optimistic about the future, but it’s looking like Xbox has been getting more positive messaging lately than Sony, and they’re starting to attempt to “put their boot on their neck” as you say. What are your thoughts on this situation? Why do you think Sony would end this important partnership and do you think Sony will have any more wild decisions this year? Thanks in advance, and looking forward to flying out wherever the next live show will be!

Andre Lee

Hey CDC, just writing in after the news on Sony parting ways with Kojima productions for the Physint game and Movie show tie ins. The move for Xbox swooping in with open arms seems like yet another short term PR win for them. My question is more of an attempt to analyse the reasoning behind Sonys decision. Death stranding, as brilliant and different as it was did not really set the world alight in sales, the fact Sony dipped in again for a second was a suprise for me. Combining this with how long it takes for Kojima to put games together and I do believe the signs of this happening were in the making to begin with. Especially with the announcement not to long ago that Sony had released the Death Stranding IP back to Kojima, I just don't think his ideas are profitable enough for sony. Especially with the budgets and how long they take to come to fruition. Let me know your thoughts. Take care

Bisexual Lighting Rigger

Look Fat With Playstation continuing their suicide by a thousand cuts, what do you guys think of Physint going to Xbox? While not on the same level as the "here's how you trade games on Playstation" video, moves like this give that same vibe. What do you think the implications of letting the spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid slip away will have? Cheers

Adam

Well, at least Geoff Keighley will get 2 Christmases this year. More like PHYS-ISN’T, am I right?

Quinn

Hey fellers, Was Kojima becoming an Xbox man on your 2026 bingo card?

Paul E.T.

G’Day Fellas, This one’s for Colin (sport talk alert). As of writing this question, the Rams and 49ers are about 20 hours away from playing the first ever NFL game for points in Melbourne, Australia. Did you watch it? The MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) is one of the oldest and biggest sports stadiums in the world and I’ve been lucky enough to attend a couple of Australian Rules Football games there (I’m in Adelaide, South Australia) so I’m assuming it was rocking. Also, seeing as you’ve mentioned you’re a little sports curious… I’d highly recommend checking out an AFL game or two over the next few weeks. The Playoffs (we call them The Finals) are currently taking place and your late nights might work in your favour with the wacky game times. Personally, I think Aussie Rules is the best football code in the world (it’s also the most attended domestic sports league in the world per capita), but I am a little biased. We’d love to have you guys down here sometime! Plus, Dustin, Melbourne has some of the best coffee in the world. Cheers from Down Under, Paul

Sam, it’s Tarman

Hey gents, it’s Tarman I’m high as hell in the back of this uber, and the Kojima news just dropped. Holy shit. Keep on keeping on boys. -Tarman

NerfedNinja

Boys, Agree or disagree. “Core” gamers are strangely like the physical crowd. Games like Death Stranding, while amazing for many reasons, are not games you can market to the average person and thus the Kojima commitment had to be broken? After all we’ve been lamenting the industry trending towards the “average” gamer (aka majority). Sony had to move away from PHYSINT as a purely cost benefit analysis. This must mean that the anticipated success of the game would not recoup as much as splitting ways. This makes no sense in any other scenario. Is this right or do your opinions differ?

Alex Segovia @TheSlayerGiant

Hi gents, With the recent Kojima move, are we literally witnessing a company just tanking all its reputation at turbo speed daring anyone to not leave? Are the people running Sony now really this retarded? And has it become clear Xbox is truly in it to fight? So many mixed emotions, so I’ll hang out and listed.

TheUnchartedWolf

Hey boys! With the news around PHYSINT causing a massive uproar across the Playstation community, most of the blame seems to be pointed at Herman Hulst. Colin you said yourself that you don't believe Herman has much power over many of Playstation's decisions anymore, so clearly this had to come from someone above him. Do you guys think Sony is keeping Herman around as some kind of punching bag to take all blame away from the company itself. This sounds dumb but there really is no other reason for him to have his job position. To quote a tweet from Radec after the news broke "what does he even do?".

McHaggis

Hello gents. With the news that Sony dropped Kojima, and for the project to be saved by xbox, I’m starting to think the issue is deeper than Herman Hulst. Who is running things over there and do they need to wake up to what is starting to look like a resurgent xbox? PS interesting to note after GTAVI reveal, both consoles saw more or less the same percentage increase in sales.

The Acute Cinephile

Hey CCD, hope you're all well. Colin, your position has always been that Sony gets away with anti-consumer moves because the competition is incompetent. I've agreed with you every time you've said it. But then Sony drops Kojima's Physint and Xbox swoops in and picks it up. That strikes me as a genuinely deft move on Xbox's part; cred with gamers they badly needed, and another dent in Sony's already tarnished reputation. Whether it moves the needle enough to make Xbox properly competitive again, who knows. But, to me, it looks like a step in the right direction. I'm a lifelong PlayStation fanboy and I am now actively rooting for Xbox to come back. Seeing what a real monopoly looks like and results in will do that to a person. So my question is this - does a move like Physint, in your eyes, make Xbox more competent in it's competitiveness, or is one good pickup just noise until Xbox strings together a few years of it? And do you think Sony even notices? Anyway, I'm off to India on vacation, where my wife is delivering our baby daughter. Wish us luck and congratulations Dustin on your bundle of joy. Take care guys.

Dimitrios Rodriguez

Good afternoon, CDC, I was very stoked that my comment was read on the show. I was hyped, and I showed my sister; she started laughing, then was like, "Why the hell did you even go to Wendy’s?" Wendy’s is dog shit now, but that’s beside the point, Colin. I remember you saying you didn’t know what Cartier Balmain meant. I’ll give a quick footnote: Cartier Balmain was the literal name of the cashier who couldn’t count the change. I swear to you, his legal name was Cartier, like the fucking bracelet, and Balmain, like the tight T-shirts Dominicans wear with their potbellies (don’t worry, I’m part Dominican; I can say that). That’s why I told him that with a name like Cartier Balmain, you have to become the number one draft pick in the NFL or the NBA or any sport and become a sports phenomenon, or you’re fucked because you don't know how to count change. P.S. I don’t know what’s going on with PlayStation right now, but I feel like it’s not good. (Production/studio wise) Cheers!

If I cum in the woods, does god hear me scream?

Hey boys, I have a question, I assume good things will happen again in the PlayStation ecosystem again at some point correct? I’m not saying that I’m not having fun on PlayStation or that there’s good games coming out, but it feels like we’re just making a system for shareholders at this point. Not everything needs to be something that makes the most money possible every time and I kind of miss having fun surprises to get excited about from PlayStation. Not sure what else to say, but the vibes are terrible right now.

Not Rob Kvasne

Dear Sacred Men, I'm not predicting this to be true, but what if PHYSINT sucks? Now I ultimately think if PHYSINT is given unlimited Microsoft money, it will end up being a different game than what would have came out under PlayStation. But what if it sucks? What if Microsoft thinks it's a quadruple A game and hires Crystal Dynamics to help out only to cancel it later? Would Microsoft pretend like nothing happened and proceed forward with OD? What if it's scrapped anyway and Kojima never releases anything again? I'd hate to see my boy go out like that. At least we'll have his film reviews.

SL

Hey C,C and D, Do you think that Sony bailing on Physint for financial reasons will finally clue the 'Sony shouldn't invest in live service games' crowd into just how unsustainable leaning entirely on single-purchase movie-games would be for Sony? One live service hit likely makes more than enough to fund this game and several others that Sony currently can't rationalize the budget for. Instead they're likely penny-pinching to afford the 400 million+ that the next Spider-man and Horizon projects are going to need.

Orb Ponderer

Hello Sacred Orbs, While its disappointing to see Sony walk away from their partnership with Kojima on PHYSINT, it is highly likely the game still comes to PlayStation platforms, in which case the move makes complete financial sense. Funding development and MDF for the game that was probably always coming to PS5 and PS6 would be spending unnecessarily. If not Sony footing the bill, someone else would have and todays news proves just that. Props to Xbox for getting behind the game but I'd be surprised if this has anything more than timed exclusivity.

OysterCult

Hey legends, John Donahoe took over as Nike CEO in 2020. By 2026, Nike has been dropped from the S&P 100 for the first time in eighteen years. The stock down roughly 80% over five years, even losing roughly $25 billion in market cap in a single day. Donahoe justified his actions with data driven formulas: cut out the middleman, go direct to consumer, chase higher margins… Sony's disc-less strategy (among other recent fuck ups) feels eerily similar, and now they've cancelled a Kojima game that their main competitor has picked up. Donahoe stepped down in 2024, and Nike still hasn't recovered. Are we watching the early stages of the same data driven playbook pick apart our sweet baby Sony? Is Herman our Donahoe? Maybe Nike can make a Concord Air Max and save us all. Thank you for all the content and praise be to baby Leon. Cheers-

Sergio Pina

Hello. In regards to the Kojima debacle with PlayStation, this recent move to cancel Physint proves to me Colin is right once again with his statement that PlayStation isn’t the same company it once was. Think back to December of 2015 when off the heels of Kojima being let go by Konami, Andrew House decided to give him a blank check to make whatever he wanted because it was good for the brand. Having someone of that stature in your corner is a good PR move. Death Stranding 1 and 2 weren’t killer apps or 10+ million sellers, but it meant something for PlayStation to have those games. Now, we have a PlayStation that is completely devoid of any good PR over the last year, and you can tell they simply don’t care. Sony letting Kojima walk knowing that he could possibly go to Xbox again was another fumble. You can’t let an Autor like Kojima go to your competition after he’s been in your camp and created one of the biggest franchises associated with your console’s history in MGS. Again, they just don’t care it seems, and if enough of these pile up, it’s going to be a death by 1000 cuts, and meanwhile Xbox seems to be healing their 1000 cuts over time. The tides are changing.

David D

Hey DCC, with the latest example of Sony shooting itself in the foot with Physint, what are some other genuine things they might do that could make the situation even worse? Price hikes for PS Plus? Closing down one of the core teams?

Pravda22

Guys I know that art and culture doesn’t matter anymore at Sony but wtf at this point. Colin when it comes to Japan studio, you kept mentioning that people didn’t buy the games anyway but comparing that to culture will always fail because look at where we are. If intergalactic and factions cancelled puts naughty dog in the negative in addition to lou2 breaking even. Do we just let them go ? Is Santa Monicas old hag simulator doesn’t do well do we throw everything out ? Spiderman 2 made less profit than 1 and Wolverine is looking expensive too, let’s cut them out even more Where do we draw the line in this argument. At this point most of Sony first party doesn’t qualify to stay if kojima doesn’t make the cut.

Bryan McIntosh

Good morning, guys. Here in the UK, we’ve woken up to the news that Sony has reportedly dropped Kojima’s new game. Naturally, the internet has decided this is the end of the world! But could Sony simply be looking at the numbers? They’ve effectively written two blank cheques for Kojima Productions, while Death Stranding 2 has reportedly sold just over 2 million copies. Would that even have covered the development and marketing costs, or has Sony looked at the performance of both games and decided it’s time to cut its losses? Is this actually a sensible business decision, or could Sony be making a huge mistake? Thanks!

Campbell Parker

Yo C, C and Basement D. In light of PlayStation separating from Kojima on the production of Physint, do you think Kojima's obsession with using Hollywood talent has negatively affected how successful his pretty niche games can be?

chris liddelow

Hey Cobber. I think I have the solution to your fly issue. The Bug-A-Salt. Another great American invention. This handy device shoots out plain salt to dispatch these bastards to the lowest circle of hell. Also works on spiders, ants, cockroaches and many other pesky crawlys. I had to order one quick before our socialist communist government changed the laws again and bans toy guns as well as everything else fun. Cheers boys. Chris. Perth. W.A.

A very special boy

Hi Chris, On the livestream this week Colin said and i quote "Killzone 3 is arguably the greatest single player shooter of all time." can you please set him straight.

FoundWaldo

Dear Sacred Boys, Hideo Kojima announced last night that PHYSNT was “unexpectedly” cancelled by Sony in mid-June, leaving Kojima Productions scrambling to search for a new partner. They found one; Xbox. This does not bode well for PlayStation at all, on multiple fronts. (1) Kojima and his games have frankly been one of the cornerstones of PlayStation since the PS1 with MGS. His departure from PlayStation (and yes I do not think any future Kojima Production games will launch on PS as it stands) signals a deep disrespect of PS heritage. (2) Kojima, a titan in the space for three decades, was sidelined by his longest partner, while multiple Live Service Slop (LSS ™️) games have been green lit, produced and sent to die with hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain. (3) and probably most shockingly, Kojima has chosen to partner with a slowly but steadily re-emerging Xbox, who *seems* to be doing a lot of right things in the eyes of their consumers. What do you guys think the dismissal of Kojima Productions/PHYSNT will mean for Playstation & the upcoming PS6? Thanks.

Deemac

I already know the thumbnail is gonna be that shot of Hulst and Kojima when Physint was announced lmao

Gareth H

Hey Colin, A great Sacred Plus episode this week. I love these conversations. Just a small correction on the Dreamcast playing copied games straight off the bat. That wasn’t the case, you actually had to use the “Utopia” boot disc and then swap the game for it to load. Of course nowadays I wouldn’t even do such a thing. Keep up the great work.

Rogue Lalo

Hey CDC, With today's news that Sony have parted ways with Kojima, what's your general take on the company right now, and do we have any real grasp on what's going on internally? I can see both sides. Death Stranding 1 and 2 didn't exactly fly off the shelves, and Kojima's production values are notoriously expensive, so it's hard to imagine the franchise ever recouped its costs, not that we'll ever know for sure. Maybe the Concord hangover hasn't worn off yet either. But on the other hand, the decisions Sony have made in the space of eight months have me thinking the PS5 might be my last PlayStation. It'll still have a good decade in it after the PS6 lands, so it's not as if I'd be left with nothing. I was around for the dark days of the PS3 and somehow that felt less bleak. There were still bright spots on the horizon (ironically, MGS4 being one of them), we were moving into an online ecosystem that felt full of potential, Sony were a far better communicator back then, and things were generally more affordable. In 2026 it's much harder to see the same upside or give them the benefit of the doubt. Why keep investing in a company whose priorities appear to be drifting away from its customers and towards its investors and shareholders? Colin, you've got a fair few connections over there. What's your read on the rot that seems to have set in? Thanks, and keep up the great work chaps.

Matic Bric

Following recent events do you still think games like laufey and intergalactic as well as until dawn 2 and Kena 2 will be fine or get hurt by being associated with playstation

Seán Murphy

Hello boys, After PlayStation’s pullback from PC, I was imagining that sometime during the PS6 generation, like was the case with the PS4 generation, I’d eventually be forced to pick one up to play the 10 or so exclusives that appealed to me. In this case, it was Intergalactic and Physint. That scenario is looking unlikely now, so how does Sony intend to capture a PC player like me with its new strategy? Ironically, Physint will presumably now come to PC itself.

Extermin8or_

Hey guys I think it's safe to say that something odd is going on at thr tope of SIE and Sony. I know we like to blame Herman Hulst but and har me out; I'm not convinced he is the problem per se. I don't think he has been calling the shots since the fuck up that was Comcord. I think that was used to remove much of his power as an exec and that he is still in post because he has no authority anymore. This current modern iteration if sony that seems to be operating solely by spreadsheet and no consideration beyond that started with the promotion of one man to the top of SIE on an interim basis abd then fo the head of Sony overall and he was straightforward that be was a money and spreadsheet kinda guy: Hiroki Totoki. He is also the one that keeps making statements like openly telling the press he essentially wants wring as much money as possible out of existing ps5 users- it might be true, you might even think it but you as a senior exec don't say it or you give a PR response. He was always clear though that he was a spreadsheet guy. He spent ages visiting sony studios as you remember and then stepped up to be Sony CEO and had Herman and the guy from hardware to take Jim Ryan's position I don't think he relinquished control, I think he put in place two people he could control easily and is operating things based on spreadsheets alone which misses the important extra clarifying information above and beyond the raw figures. Whatever else you think of him I think Jim Ryan did understand there is more to running a business than the finances alone and that public perception matters. Have a great day CDC and let us hope someone see's sense soo or an investor contacts a certain bald dude with a barcode to clean house.

Deemac

Is this Physint news just more confirmation that Herman Hulst has no power anymore? On the announcement video, Hulst and Kojima were together talking about Physint, presenting a united front and talking about the partnership PlayStation and Kojima have had since the PS1 - and this project seemed to be Hulst's baby with how he talked about encouraging Kojima to the action-espionage genre. But now he clearly has no say in a lot of things, so is this a move by Nishino/Totoki in order to cut costs on an expanding game budget? Either way it seems like an awful PR move to cut ties with Kojima in this way, I wonder is there even more to the story. Looking forward to the Jason Schreier video breaking it down

Swagglerock

Hello Sacred Gentlemen. With all of this news about our boy, Hideo Kojima, do you guys think that Kojima productions will lose access to the decima engine? I think this will end up being the biggest tragedy of all. I am still exited for Phyzint, but it will be kind of a bummer if they have to use unreal engine 5 instead.

Hugh Janus

Hey gents With the earth-shattering Kojima news (that made me pull out my chair to read the discourse online, like that guy on the meme) how did Sony fumble this? Like literally - you would think they would do anything in their power to a) keep the project alive since Kojima games are not solely about just profits, but about credibility OR b) at least make an agreement with Kojima so that he doesn't throw PlayStation under the bus with a tweet. He clearly did and I think Sony should've (and could've) avoided that. So - when IS Hermen actually going? I get the sports analogy that you have to keep him employed to not pay him out. But like Colin said, just pay him out already and get back to business. I can't believe I'm saying this, but PlayStation needs an Asha Sharma now.

Nick W

Dear Colin, You’ve spoken many times over the years about how you were a diehard Nintendo fan and Wii apologist until one day you realised the bitter truth. Is it fair to say that Sony have done more damage to their brand this generation than Nintendo did all those years ago? I look forward to your mea culpa on the next Punching Up - we’d love to have you back into the fandom.

The Southern Drinker

Hey Sacred Trio! Chris, I was listening to you on Summon Sign, and you said nobody gives a shit about listening to you talk about Budokai. Well I do! Please give us 15 minutes on the subject. Thank you and have a nice day!

Gabe Owner

Well maybe a Bloodborne port isn't entirely FromSofts fault. They built a beautiful bridge with Kojima just to burn it down. It's hard to believe that they're actually this dumb.

Cristian Colța

Is the curse of the 3rd console about to become the curse of every 3rd console?

Kurt Lewin

Hey Sacred Boys Quick correction from last weeks episode. In the news about the Gran Turismo 7 update, Colin said that iRacing had recently come to PlayStation, but that isn't the case. I am kinda being pedantic but it wasn't iRacing that came to PlayStation but a spin off arcade racer called iRacing Arcade which came to Steam earlier this year and developed by the studio behind Circuit Superstars who iRacing bought a few years ago specifically to make a cartoony more family friendly arcade racing game. Cheers

Laurence

Hey CDC, I’ve been wondering whether PlayStation’s recent run of public business decisions could hurt its momentum heading into the next generation. Over the last few years we’ve seen layoffs, studio closures, project cancellations, a big failed first-party live service push, and now what appears to be the end of the Kojima partnership. From a business perspective, I can understand the focus on mainstream audiences who spend their time on live service games, sports games, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and similar titles. To be fair, Xbox has had its own layoffs, closures, and strategy shifts too. This isn’t a “Sony bad, Xbox good” argument. My question is this: does this shift in priorities eventually matter? Do the opinions of the hardcore gamers who helped build the PlayStation brand still carry weight when it comes to being a hardware market leader in the next generation? At the same time, Xbox feels like the hungry challenger. Their marketing and communications often seem more reactive and consumer-focused than Sony’s. Does Xbox actually have teeth as a competitor again?

Kristi Noem's Dead Dog

Colin! Over the past few weeks, you've been discussing Alan Wake 2 and wondering why it isn't a 20 million unit seller. While I'd love Remedy's games to reach a wider audience, I think that's unrealistic. I see their games as similar to the works of Lynch, Jodorowsky, Lanthimos, Kon, and others who explore surrealism and the uncanny. Despite critical praise, none of these titles achieved mainstream success. David Lynch is the most well known director in this style, and his highest grossing films are Dune and The Elephant Man, which are among his more straightforward stories. Given that the medium itself is already more niche than movies, I don't believe a surrealist game should be expected to sell very well. Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to take the chicken to dinner first.

Austin Morgerson

Hey CCD. Is Sony completely stupid? Kojima games are expensive, but his reputation is still worth tying to your brand. Reports say this was entirely Sony’s decision—they blindsided him and forced him to scramble into a new Xbox deal. It makes no sense. Sony looks like they are actively damaging their own reputation. Do you think this has anything to do with the story a couple of weeks ago about a major publisher considering dropping PlayStation over their physical-media stance? The timing feels like more than a coincidence, especially since Kojima has already gone on record against this digital-only “you don’t actually own your games” market.

KZ_Eikon

Hello gentlemen, To put it simply for the Physint news: “WHAT THE FUCK?!?!!?!?” “WHO THE FUCK?!?!?” “WHY THE FUCK?!?!” Thanks, I’ll hang up and crash out in the middle of the road with the widows down screaming “WTF PLAYSTATION?!”

Vonoran

Hey Sacred Symbols, You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Has PlayStation become the villain?

Kevin (doo doo garbage) Abdul

Greetings Sacred Gents Did you see the switch from PlayStation to Xbox for the publishing of Kojima's next game? As a fan of the Death Stranding games, I am disappointed, but I think Sony realized what Konami realized years before: that the return on investment isn't big enough to justify the likely high budget he is asking for.

E. Fisher

Hello Guys, Who does Sony need to tap to get PlayStation back on track? They’ve tanked the social credibility. Can we petition Shawn Layden or Shuhei to come back? Is there someone within PlayStation who can right the ship? Sony seems to be total freefall. Hulst and Totoki are nosediving without a parachute.

paracetamol consumer

Hey CDC, Colin, for a while now you’ve been saying something along the lines of “We aren’t the primary PlayStation customer anymore”. This is, as we all know, because most money is generated from live service and free to play titles, not through single player game sales. I agree with you. However, isn’t this an incredibly dangerous move that Sony is making? If I think about the most casual gamers I know, they all play live service games. These games are either annualised or have cross progression. If they play any single player games, nowadays it’s mostly through subscription services like PS Plus with rare exception. People make the argument that gamers won’t easily switch systems next generation because their digital libraries will keep them chained to their current platform. This may be true for you and I, but what about the casual gamer that has nothing to lose? Annualised games are worthless as soon as a new one comes out. You can’t name a free to play game of consequence where your progress won’t transfer across platforms. You don’t even have the apprehension of worrying about what system your friends purchase with cross play being in everything now too. Seems to me that the consumers that Sony are dead set on trying to make money from are also the ones who have nothing to lose by abandoning them. What do you think? Is Sony making the right choice in the long run by focusing on the casual consumer, or are they setting themselves up to be deserted?

A Level 1 Cleric

Happy 9/11 boys. In all seriously tho, I would like to give a warm thank you to Jerry(?) Moriarty on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. I hold an incredible respect for fire fighters in general and the fact that your father served the FDNY on that day is something to be proud of. Thanks for all the amazing content that helps keep me sane and awake as I truck across the east coast.

Drew D

Hi Guys, What impact do you guys think Xbox publishing the game has on Kojima's team using the Guerilla engine? Is that still likely given Xbox publishing the game now instead of Sony? Thanks and have a great day! Drew D