#53: The Plot Thickens

Frozen lasagna medium power 15 minutes sounds like oh Joe time let's play Welcome the sacred symbols the Internet's most beloved PlayStation podcast if you want to get our show three days earlier than free feeds and completely without ads Please consider supporting us on patreon at patreon.com slash Collins last sand your support on patreon also allows you to submit your questions comments concerns thoughts And ideas to our show gives you the ability to vote on the let's please we do allows you access to exclusive podcasts and more You can also buy sacred symbols merch by going to tiny URL calm slash sacred shirts I suspect you look damn sexy with our logo and blazing across your chest But that's just one man's opinion of course We love our free-feed listening audience to if you don't have the means or desire to show a support on patreon or with merch Please consider leaving us a nice review on the podcast service of your choice and let friends and family know about sacred symbols We on the other hand will keep making Tuesdays great again, but enough chatter. Have at you on to the show Greetings and salutations welcome back to sacred symbols a PlayStation podcast. This is episode 53 My name is Colin where you're joined is always by my fellow birthday boy Chris Ray gun because Chris this is actually now the second year Yeah, it's officially pretty wild in fact I think I could be wrong but I believe we published the first episode of the show on July 2nd 2018 Which means this will actually go live exactly year after is that even possible is 365 divisible by seven? I guess it is again I'm a little 365 divided by seven.

No, that can't possibly be right then. It's 52.14 Listen, I didn't show up to the show to do math, right? So I guess we're wrong. I guess I'm wrong.

I didn't say anything wrong Hey, Chris, how are you today doing good? I was up till 5 a.m. Editing which sounds bad, but it's actually I like it I like it and shit done you guys I'm coming down the pipe here Yeah, I'm just waiting for an animation from a friend of mine for the video and then and then we're all good That's great. Is it down the piper down the pike?

I've heard both piper right? What the hell down the pike? Yeah, like a pipe like a pipe is a road or a path like a term pike. Oh, I guess yeah I think of pikes is like a thing that you stick human heads on spear.

Yeah, that's also a pike a pike is also a fish I think a pike is a type of fish English is a horrible language apparently I know it's like we make all these noises obviously but then they see a spear they see a road and they see a fish Yeah, and the noise they make is just what are they called all those things pikes? You know I was noticing a friend of mine and I was talking about like how the fact that like the phrase how much did that run you? Makes no sense to anybody who doesn't speak fluent English. Yeah, what is the atomology behind that?

I wonder there's all this interesting atomology right now the things we say we don't think about the rule of thumb for instance Or you know obviously what what I'm gonna look at for some of the mouth is probably the most famous one I hate that one you don't like that one now. That's an interesting one It's not like horses and I don't like them being involved in anything that has anything to do with me They're a little unsettling. They're heinous. I worked my first job ever as I think we talked around the show I was 14 the summer of 2000 was working at Sables where I would work amongst the horses gross and it they are scary creatures I will tell you this I used to ride this horse sometimes like after work and go down these paths on one I was coming back and this horse was riding me right into like this branch It was like a cartoon right and I had a duck the horse would not stop and when I also don't really understand probably I was doing I was wearing this Decepticons t-shirt like with the logo on it and I went underneath this horse brings me to the Bridge I have to duck and like hug the horse to not get caught on the street and it grabs the back of my shirt like rips it Basically off my body.

I'll never forget that as long as I live and that's my horse story my horse harry story as it were Chris I want to inform the audience. So this is episode 53 episode 54 next week's gonna be a totally normal episode But next week we're also gonna record episode 55 because I'm going on vacation for a little while I'm gonna go see my family out east and go see day getting my sisters and my mom etc So we're gonna record a second episode next week that will go live the normal time So there will be no disruption as usual, but we're gonna do our game of the year so far for episode 55 So that's gonna be a kind of a special episode. Yeah, so just want to let everyone know what's going on We're not gonna have a timely episode that we still have your normal you know will download your you look for yeah Please look forward to it. It's a good time to put it up anyway Yeah halfway done with the year.

Yeah, the timing seems quick for two of this so I want to let everyone know that that was happening I'm actually gonna go away Chris I also wanted to just take the time if I might mm-hmm to talk about PlayStation hits now PlayStation hits We've talked about in the past are this or is this line of triple a style games both digitally and at retail that are at an affordable Price right and they're 1999 each and by the way We're not getting sponsored anything like this for saying this I just know that the audience is really you know You want to pinch some pennies you want to save some dollars So we just announced some new additions to this lineup So I want to read out the entire lineup of triple a PS4 1999 1999 PlayStation hits that you can go get that are affordable in case you're looking to pinch some pennies This is a good list of games and they're cheap So just want to throw this out there for our audience Lego Batman 3 Beyond Gotham Lego Jurassic World Horizon Zero Dawn complete edition God of War 3 remastered Neo Mad Max persona 5 Star Wars Battlefront Friday the 13th the game resident evil 7 the uncharted collection until dawn Batman Arkham Knight need for speed rivals EA UFC 2 Dynasty where his extreme legends shadow of Mordor need for speed dying light injustice gods among us Battlefield hardline dragon age Inquisition plans versus zombies bar and warfare to Lego Marvel superheroes Earth Defense Force 4.1 World combat 10 Street Fighter 5 bloodborne ratchet and clank drive club infamous second song Killzone Shadowfall little big plan to three project cars the last of us remastered uncharted for the zend battlefield for doom Yakuza kawami Yakuza 0 and million yourself 5 the phantom pain pretty good list of games Do you mind dying life for 99 each so get out there if you're interested Just want to let you guys all know that that has expanded Joseph LaRouza wrote in once on patreon just like you can remember the show support on patreon.com slash Collins last and get early Ad for access to every one of our shows and the ability to smirring queries just like Joseph did He said hello gentlemen just a correction here for mr. Ray gun what CTR nitrofield does have a horn button It is the circle button when you have no items to use keep making two days great again And I look forward to double helping some August did I say there wasn't a horn this apparently did because I've gotten this feedback from Multiple people a like care we also apparently you did say that I did notice it Immediately, I think what it was like while we were doing the podcast I was like in the middle of like the platinum hunt right like towards the tail end of it So I wasn't paying much attention to the horn, but I did notice it and it gave me a nice little chuckle And many congratulations, I was gonna save this until we talk about the games were gonna play but you did I guess what we'll talk about it. Why not talk about it now. Why not it came up organically you Platinum crashed you racing in about four days.

Yes, and have to be I look at the piece on profiles But you must be one of the first people who have a plan in the game I mean probably like one of the first 200 or something like that When you said it was the rarity point one percent one. Yeah, so you're probably I'm probably up there I don't expect to be like the first person but like that was pretty I'm pretty happy about it. Congratulations. Yeah now I'm curious actually let's go to a zone here by the way This one's all around a bet a zone is of course our listener from Oman the middle eastern country You had made a bet with him about a PlayStation 5 if you weren't able to earn it a zone road and said Hey Colin Chris hope this post finds you both well congratulations Chris on getting your second platinum trophy in a nearly record breaking time Oman Postal Services will be disappointed for not being able to process a PS 5 next year my question How does it feel like a trophy hunter for a short period of time instead of being a casual gamer?

It felt pretty good getting it. I'm not gonna lie. That was particularly a challenging one Like I didn't feel much for the spider-man one because the spider-man one felt very attainable right? Yeah, that was an easy one But this one was like genuinely like blood finger blisteringly hard skill based very difficult right it's a hard game by itself So like yeah, no, I probably it was amazing.

It's like apparently I didn't know this while I was doing it But apparently there's there was a save corruption glitch on ps4 all that specifically to do with the time trials So while I was doing the time trials there was a chance that I could have lost all that progress I saw that you definitely dodged a bullet because as well I think we'll talk about it. We talked about last week I don't know yeah, no, I think we did talk about it last week or two weeks ago I had a game breaking bug in what's named. Oh, yeah, fucking sucks Yeah, I couldn't imagine that was only four hours of progress like up there like two hours So it wasn't the end of the world but for something like time trials and all this guy would have really felt bad for you Especially because you were actively pursuing this you weren't it was like your job for a few days. Yeah, yeah I for went several product what is it videos now?

I'm asking a question that I'm kind of curious about like did this This spark anything you and liking trophies and being curious you got a platinum game you really love so like yeah That's something you will consider doing with do maternal or whatever Oh sure Yeah, I think it's always gonna be the games that I really really gravitate to or the things that I'm really passionate about I've done this on the 362 there like mainly with Halo games Well, like there's there's a few games that I've just gotten all the achievements and just like their games that I really really like But it's not the idea that I would do it for everything that I play or even the majority of things No, no, stay away from me You got a pursuit I used to be like that or at least try to be like that my platinum earning I think a slowdown But I only do it for deliberately for games I like yeah, and there have been times where I've chased and I've been like a fuck it 10 years ago or five I mean, I'm 10 maybe 10 10 years ago. I've made might have felt a little differently about that Yeah, my goal is to just have my platinum list to just be entirely comprised of games that I could recommend to people like without a shadow That's nice mine is typically that way now, but not back in the day I don't recommend that you play Ringo on ps3 or leisure suit Larry box office bust Which is maybe the worst thing ever played my life Greg Horstman wrote into us. I think Horstman is right There's no e I'd like to think your name is horseman You said hi guys long time listener first on call or this one's for Chris with the release of crash team racing I'm curious about the difficulty level you mentioned this was a much more difficult game than most cart racers my girlfriend rarely plays games We do enjoy playing some Lego games and Mario Kart together I was excited for CTR because I wouldn't have to dust off the Wii U to play Mario Kart and of course trophies I'm a little concerned that CTR may be too difficult for her. Have you played any split-screen multiplayer?

Do you recommend CTR for the non-hardcore gamer? She would only be playing split-screen but would be no fun for her if the difficulty is too hard Yeah, I mean, it's it's still a car race or the end of the day like you know How good you are depends on like exactly that how good you are so like I think you just bump the difficulty down to medium or easy Maybe easy because this game's kind of brutal, but easy is gonna put you right where Mario Kart is I don't see why she wouldn't enjoy it in that sense I have played split-screen I have to do that thing that Dash and the Incredibles does where he just kind of has to slow himself down because I can't I can't play with Norwood it's a game that I'm too good at to play with my friends, but not good enough to play competitively I mean that weird kind of zone of this limbo space, but it's a good Yeah, I don't see any reason why she wouldn't enjoy it on easy at least can't play with the normies Can't play with the normies can't play with the hardwares Well, congratulations to Chris he saved itself potentially I think probably $500 when I'm having to buy the PS5 of course don't know the price of it I just raise controller you did I got so angry that I twisted it and shattered it so well You're sure it did cost it cost $60 at the cost of like $600 or $500 later on the line Very good worth it a few other inquiries and things we need to go over before we get into that what we're playing otherwise Zachary wrote into us on patreon now last week I talked about Blue boxes specifically with electronic arts appearing before UK Parliament about what's going on with the blue boxes gambling Are they predatory etc a lot of people took umbridge with what I had said about it? And so I want to at least give someone the ability to present a counter argument here Although I think that this argument this counter argument was presented by a lot of people had a lot of problems with me saying That it's not gambling and people need to be parents and this is really an overblown issue by the way I stand by all those things but here's what Zach he says He says I have to comment on last week's discussion regarding loot boxes You were both quite dismissive of it of how it could be construed gambling So let me try and make my counterpoint. I think I was a Smith.

I think you're talking to me now. You're a Smith. You didn't agree. I said you both were a Smith.

Oh, did you say that? And so yeah, you're right I can't remember anything that I had just said I can say anything and then I had an argument or an error No, I said that Aaron she's like why don't you just say that and then I literally remember my yeah I just just said that you're having aneurysms. Holy moly He says number one you have millions of players in one game mode much fewer on the rest This game mode is pay to win after a certain point as the player at the very top You must have the best players to compete number two obtaining these players in game is almost impossible due to sub 1% chances of obtaining loot boxes and thousand games per player to obtain through grinding is of course talking about FIFA here number three kids Don't use credit cards they go to the store to buy points and spend them in game So parents have no idea that's where the money is gone number four the thrill of packing a top player I think you can pick a top player who has a reality zero intrinsic value will be worthless within 12 months who do to shady game Bouncing tech EA owns will actually help you is a slippery slope of gratification that leads to gambling addicts I totally again reject anything that suggests that people are being enticed to gamble because it's a choice You know, it's a choice. It's a choice I don't know if I agree with the slippery slope thing I don't know if I could really say that it leads to gambling annex all I know is that I don't like it and we were better off beforehand And that's reason enough for me to be against it literally.

That's literally my only reason I think it's valid. You don't need to like over blow an issue to make it, you know What it is which is shitty. Yeah, I see what he's saying in the terms of what's that key I assume you're a guy is saying about I guess your point of view or your thought process But I'm a gambler. I like to gamble and I go to Vegas multiple times a year and I walk in what casino I understand that the casino exists for one reason to extract as much money at me as possible That's what that's what the casino exists for now I like the casino I have a lot of fun there and I gamble I sit the black-deck table I meet interesting people and and go to restaurants But at the end of the day I walk in knowing with with open eyes what's happening and why this is happening Right, and if you don't walk in the situations whether it's the EA situation or going to Vegas or wherever or my cow And you want to go gamble then that's your fault.

I'm sorry like that's your problem I don't Vegas manufacturers a ton of gambling addicts, you know And I don't think that it's Vegas's fault because a lot of people go to Vegas and are able to get out of there So I think it takes a little bit of self-control. I don't like this But also kids can't go to Vegas and gamble. I think is the main draw here That's true. They can go and see those which I always tell you but yeah, yeah, because that's the other thing I didn't know that yeah, because we go multiple times a year.

They're always kids So they just don't think you know what they can't gamble or they can't get the cardio. Yeah, what's the point? I don't know why anyone brings their children on Vegas. I'm gonna say actually.

Oh, that's right. We're no reason I have no idea. It's like an Airbnb. Oh, you see Vegas is one of the only places you definitely want to stay in a hotel I mean yeah, like in one of the resorts I love like the wing resorts and encore and all those anyway The point is is that we have to take a little bit of I think a agency over our own choices And even if kids are going out and buying these like these cars like who cares like I just don't get it I don't get this argument I appreciate the counter argument I appreciate a lot of people take an umber to what I said, but I just don't get it Josiah wrote a no since I had a colon Chris long time first time I just wanted to follow up on a comment the column made on the last episode postulating that being a second party studio would be The perfect situation in quotes for a developer while having the benefit of financial security for a project can't be second party also Come in issue with the publisher doesn't want to continue using IP for example I recently pulled the order 1886 out of my bag and just read discovered an amazing world with fantastic learning characters while admittedly The game is short and shallow platinum in about 10 hours a follow up But hopefully improve on the first game's shortcoming so without so many blessing ready Don't can't make this happen.

I personally would love to have rad make another crack and take another crack at this IP as a world alone Make a sequel deserved would love to hear your thoughts keep up the great work and keep fucking that chicken dress far each year's from Boston It's horrifying. You're right. I mean this is an interesting counterpoint being a second party comes with its deficit as well Although I guess my counter counter argument would be that a ready Don would have never been able to create the order 1886 without something to begin with they weren't gonna make that Yeah, so they weren't gonna be able to fund it themselves So also they can they can walk away from that game and be like alright Well, that was that was what that was right and they did they still exist and as far as I know rad is still a somewhat substantial studio But remember they made their money in second party So I think they're an interesting example and not a great example because they made their money making God of War games on PSP And then so he trusted them to make the order so none of that would happen without that second party relationship But I do take your point Dominic Brandt wrote in was the colony Chris. What are your thoughts on Jason Shriers new article the human cost of Call of Duty Black Ops War?

I know you both have discussed the topic of crunch and nausea But the article is focused on the QA testers are treated like second-class citizens brings a bit of a different perspective Did you read this article Chris about I had no idea. This was even a thing So I don't know that we should spend too much time on it But there was an article that Jason Shrierill last week about Call of Duty Black Ops or specifically about Treyarch And the way Treyarch would try our six and one of us right around here But and how they treat their QA testers and how it's a pretty negative place for some people there And my honest you know people should read it of course my honest assessment on this is that I think Jason is Is risking jumping the shark now with these kinds of stories because this story is really a much to do about nothing and Is basically about how QA testers are treated differently paid differently segmented from the studio etc and so on with all of these really convenient facts buried in the article Which really annoyed the shed on me right? Basically that how abusive this is how underpaid they are how active in a triangle treat the right It's like total nonsense Then you discover a few things in the article number one a triarch QA person last year was responsible for one of the biggest leaks in recent history At Treyarch right yeah, so that's number one a QA person at Treyarch working on call of duty leaked a shit ton of stuff So that wouldn't be a huge surprise if Treyarch wasn't very happy with their QA people That's number one that was buried like 18 paragraphs in the article number two Activision and Treyarch don't employ the QA people another company It employs the QA people so when there's all this talk about how the QA people have different parking spots and a different parking line They're cutting a different building well. No shit.

They're not activation employees or trailer employees They're employees of a third party that are hired out by Activision. Yeah, I mean it seems to make sense the third thing that they put Umbridge was that these people are paid between like 12 and 18 hours an hour whatever the case might be I think it's gotta be more than that because of the minimum wage laws and I'm like okay That sucks they're working there as being asked to work long hours and all this that's 15 hour days That's a long time then you learn buried in the article again that they're between eight and 12 hours they earn time and a half and after 12 hours They earn double time if I were in that situation. I'd work as much as humanly possible. Yeah, I probably would You know, I probably would do so that's that's a third thing So I really think that this article is incredibly weak I think Jason is starting to write from a perspective of political ideology and not trying to chase the story for the story I think he has a push I think he's trying to push for unionization I think he's trying to make the situation in the games industry these developers seem worse than it is and I think it's getting a little old and a Little tired write an article on Ideologically present the facts to me as they exist but this particular situation with QA tests is a Treyarch I don't shed any tears over it really seem much about nothing if you really read the whole article and put it all together It really makes you question what is Treyarch and activation supposed to do what like they don't have internal QA They hire these other people these other people are not trusted because they fucking leech it Yeah, I know it seems a little bit weird to me.

Yeah, maybe not the best hill I feel like I haven't read it, but like I did based on what you said. It does seem like there's a bit bit of a problem Yeah, I like Jason I think he's a really great writer I really like to write a really really easy talk with any relevance whatsoever This is a right articles that are my days. No, apparently no one reads them the big thing about the sexy butts on these watermelons I know There's a real article There are no black people in the witcher that was You know that's the kind of stuff you get from Kataku with Jason drug Jason jumps in usually you get something of substance But there was no substance here This is really about a person chasing an mble and actually trying I think at this point to maybe conjure it into existence So yeah, so I would be somewhat careful now. I mean, you know everyone has an off day in a bad day I read articles that terrible so right, you know, I'm not saying that I'm above everything We do is gold most of what we do is gold.

What's the opposite of broken clocks clocks that function at a comic clock? I guess oh yeah, I guess so gross finally Sean McQuire wrote in and said hey wondering if you had any insight into why I can't accept other people's affection Am I sabotaging myself because I don't believe I'm worthy of love Amanda was a great girl But I pushed her away and then blamed her for leaving. How does that make sense? Whoa heavy dude?

Jesus crown you know this is a PlayStation podcast or is this dr. Phil? I don't know Sean I don't know wondering if you had any insight in the way I can't accept other people's affection I don't know am I sabotaging myself possibly. Yeah, it's possible Amanda was a great girl you said yourself Sean Amanda was a great girl, but I push her away and then blame her for leaving people usually sabotage themselves Honestly usually doesn't take anybody else to fuck other people.

Yeah, there's a subconscious thing I think in relationships, especially where people eventually will you know like want to like almost well the other person that breaking up with them or something You might be in a similar situation Sean. It's hard to say Chris let's talk about what we're playing a little bit about crashing racing It's just here girls playing second row so I'm wondering how's that going? Yeah, I'm trying to get back in because I put it down for a while and I I've heard it's not really that long of a game I really should just be done with it by now because I'm like did you finish second row's like no I haven't so I'm just going back into it My muscle memory is destroyed. I'm terrible at it now.

So I'm gonna stop you got a sore Yeah, exactly I got a start from the beginning Which admittedly is probably gonna be a lot easier than the first time because I just know the maps a little bit better But yeah, I'm probably gonna have to restart it at this point because there's no way that I can Organically fight the things that I'm trying to fight right now understood. I'm playing bloodstain not much more report on it I'm right at the end so I'm now just running out trophies that the last boss There's like a few hidden bosses and see your boss is some are pretty hard So I'm trying to just level up and get my guy better or my girl I should say to me So great game blessing one of the great games of the year for sure definitely warmed up the more I played it And there's a lot of really clever stuff. I think it's a little on the nose a little too on the nose I was simply not like in millions of ways. Oh, like there's just like a lot of homages I mean to homology I can feel it I can dig it, you know, but it's a little much Terrible voice acting on purpose the voice acting is better actually what's the guy's name that played solid snake?

Why can't I think of him? David Hader? Yeah, he's one of the he's oh yeah I saw he tweeted out a video and it's just solid snake. Yeah, it's just perfect by the way It's like H John Benjamin.

You don't want a John Benjamin to sound like anything other than H John Ben indeed I consider it continue to play Persona 4 Golden just kind of slowly going through that I was talking to someone about it a couple days ago. It's fun And it's good, but it really is convoluted and I really I don't see what makes this so great more like that's The thing for gold dumb. Oh, so yeah, I'm glad I'm playing and I want to continue to play but it's not this like revolutionary thing I don't like I there are many better jr. Pg.

than Persona 4 Golden I'm confident saying that after 20 hours with the game But I like it I'm glad that I'm playing it and I went back to resident evil to because my brother and I are doing a knockback on this next week and Or putting it up next week. I think and I never beat the new one I just stopped near the end so I started a new one. Yeah, we neither actually I played as Leon And so I just went back and started again with Claire There's something even funnier about Claire story than there's about Leon's you know I actually don't let's play about how Leon is like completely oblivious to everything that's going on around him like he pulls up It starts putting gas in his Jeep at the beginning and there's just like a cop car with blood over it She doesn't realize it similar thing happens in the beginning with Claire where she's out like a phone booth and she doesn't see that It's just very can't be in weird, but fun game high production value and I think actually one of the great games of the year Yeah, it's kind of wild that there's so many like over the last couple years especially like last two or three years Remake's have been pretty great because they went from being just kind of okay for a while like I was fine You know and I shot the glasses that was yeah, I was shot with the classes I guess right, you know, but now they're like actually solid. Yeah, but it's even too amazing Yeah, how's like wild?

Yeah, how comes when I shot activation like you said doing a nice job I think we've gotten a little liberal with you so or I guess maybe a liberal But the term remake remaster we release port you know like convoluted things but CTR and Spyro and rising well to these are real remix And they're actually real high quality remix to your point. You don't often see that and so yeah We got up we got like remasters for a while I think that's what it is like a lot of up res is which is like a hey Here's the same thing, but it looks not like a watercolor painting anymore, right? This is basically what we got for a while precisely so enjoying those games much more to play and traveling a little bit So I downloaded a few new vida games that I'm gonna mess around with a kid trip That looks pretty cool that down and by the way on Vida the vida store is so bad Like when you go when you go to new releases, it doesn't really it doesn't even show you like half the games that came out I don't really know what's going on here I have to go to PSN profiles and organize things by Vida and then the newest games by trophies That's how I figure out what games went up like that's not that's way more effort than most people. Yeah, no one's gonna do that So just be honest like I'm so sad.

It's so weird right basically at this point. I think it's pretty a lot of it It's like a machine a lot of it is and that's the sad thing is that like the games I bought I bought a Kid trip and something else for wind these are both like yeah I don't mean the games I mean like just the store and like the store is like this kind of like a bit It's like going back to like one of those like sites for like Amish donkey or something like one of those old ass mean sites It's there's definitely something amiss with the way it's all run Yeah, right there is a lot of there is a lot of stuff away though because that fucking once one publisher Ritaka whatever they're called release a game every week on Vida and PS4 with a fucking 20 minute platinum weekend week out Week in week out weekend we got horrible and no games by the way You did a fine on the store, but I won't play them because I'm not a fucking loser Chris Let's get to the news. Alrighty. The first item is actually based on a Wall Street Journal article and instead of just talking usually I sit down and reduce everything and try to just you know I read it That's when I write the show but this week Chris I show you you read it yourself We're gonna go over this Wall Street Journal article from June 30th Or actually technically went up in June 29th.

I guess in the morning Takashi Takashi mochi mochi zuki I want to get that right Wall Street Journal writer in Japan who writes a lot about Sony and a lot about Japanese technology the article It's called Sony positions next PlayStation for hardcore gamers The subhead is new console expected during 2020 holidays will feature sharper graphics and well-known games to help separate from rivals Now there's a lot in this article. It's so funny to the way games media works where I was looking at their stories They really got like nine stories out of this thing. So let's go over it Alright and read it as we go and then there's like probably five segments of this I think we should talk about Okay, interesting ones. So here's what it says Sony corpse next generation PlayStation is still more than a year away But it's marketing strategy against newcomers like Google is already clear focus on hardcore gamers who obsess over the latest features Sony Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida has even called the PlayStation and Mitch product aimed at serious players quote details when making games have become more important than ever He said at a recent company strategy briefing the company talked about the specs of the next PlayStation such as ray tracing Which is used for optical effects such as a showing the play of light on character spaces when they move about a candle It room all right, so let's stop there.

Yeah, what do you think about what has already been said the important things here focus on hardcore gamers Who obsess over the latest features quote details when making games have become more important? Yeah, do you think I don't know do you think that they're kind of setting themselves up because they know that the PS4 was so wildly Successful that they kind of understand that it's gonna be shot in the dark that the PS5 is going to sell nearly as well I think they're like we're aiming smaller if we sell less. It's not a failure. It's just you know, we're aiming smaller I think I felt immediately when I read it.

Mm. I think you're probably right Yeah, setting expectations because I think that this speaks Chris to the challenge that they know they're gonna face to about just getting people off of PS4 Yeah, I think that they're gonna have a problem with that and especially if it's gonna Especially the PS4 and the PS4 pro are just gonna run, you know Kind of shitty or running versions of stuff that's already available on like the PS5 when it launches which is Probably the case. Yeah, I would say probable. So they're talking a lot about ray tracing.

Why is this such a big? This is like the big buzzword now ray tracing It's a big thing in like PC and like with the modern graphics cards. It's it looks amazing But it's not something that I don't know it's not something I would necessarily focus on but I guess that's them doubling down The fact that this is a hardcore detail that only people who are really serious about this kind of thing are going to even know about or let alone pay attention to So I guess it's them kind of going down on it just by mentioning it. I think yeah, it seems to me you're probably right It seems that it's the case that much what's a good example like a blast processing or something like that it seems like it's a They're trying to nail this into people's heads.

Yeah, I think yeah I was like 16 didn't launch and was like we got bump maps, you know, like they didn't say that There was this this language is very tailored indeed starting to get it subconsciously in our minds Once a side project for the Tokyo electronics maker This is the article continues the PlayStation has become Sony's flagship consumer product and the most recent fiscal year the PlayStation unit including services like video game subscriptions Led Sony units with more than 21 billion dollars in revenue and nearly three billion dollars in operating profit This is why the still unnamed place generation PlayStation which analysts expect to be ready by the holiday of 2020 is central to the companies outlook So what people can't see here is that there's a chart which is really interesting a line chart of Showing that place Sony is becoming increasingly reliant on PlayStation. Yeah, they made almost twice as much revenue off a PlayStation last year than they did five years ago While everything else is flat so Sony is becoming a PlayStation first company which is not a huge surprise with something that is basically confirmed here now Yeah, well, they've just sort of lost a lot of footing on pretty much every other front like their TVs aren't nearly as good as competitors now like LG and Samsung are at the top of that game now and Movies are like kind of all over the place because you know, didn't they make a Ghostbusters that the Yeah, I guess I have the occasional spiders in there But so this is only interesting from a business point of view just that they have much more writing on PlayStation now I'm just why they did on PS4 I think this is relevant because I think that they're making much more deliberate decision So anyone that is worried about the things we're gonna talk about here And there's reason to worry about some of it as you move forward It's still they still striking as a company that is in control and realizes that their bread is being bothered by the specific product The article continues press the PlayStation 5 or whatever Sony chooses to call it won't have the feel to itself Alphabet inks Google is pitching a new service called stadia starting in November while Apple ink plans a new video game service in the fall called apple arcade Maybe focus on games that can be streamed from the cloud and don't require extensive new hardware Microsoft Core already has announced a holiday 20-20 first-generation Xbox Sony sees Microsoft as its main competitor in the next generation with Google a potential threat in the mid to long term as Technology advances one company official said Nintendo is in perceived as a major rival person said because its main users tend to be younger than PlayStation's core demographic So it's up there. That's interesting. I guess it really I guess I really is the case though Because the switch is kind of a supplementary console something you have with something else yes And most people have a switch in addition to like maybe an Xbox or a PS4 There's that and I think that the younger the younger core demographic I'm sure the stats do play out just means that they probably have less money So even if you get the switch into their hands and you get a PS4 and some older person's hands the older person probably has more Disposable income to spend on the games which is where the money is made So I think this is interesting, but some people took this really weirdly they're saying Xbox is their competitor They're not incredibly worried about Google which I don't think they should be and they're not worried about Nintendo at all So that's what we got at it.

What do they think that's weird? Well, I think that might the Xbox competition I think seems to make sense But I think some people think writing Google off which they're not that we talk about them later in this will talk about it again Is maybe not wise, but I think also people were offended by their kind of poo pooing of Nintendo But I don't think that that's what they mean. I think what they're so I said I don't have the same demographics really no exactly the thing and I said this is someone on Twitter I'm like I think you're interpreting this as them saying fucking sendo. They're not a competitor What they're saying is that Nintendo is not going after the same market.

We're going after so we're not gonna compete with them You know, that's different. Yeah, so I think that people need to cool a little bit though. Let's continue PlayStation has been one of the most successful mass market products of the past quarter century the PlayStation 4 alone is expected to pass 100 million units this year Sony's latest thinking puts less stress on overall sales numbers and more on the most profitable segments of the market the devoted fans who buy big Budget titles such as Bethesda softworks fall out series and take two interactives at rent that redemption a second Sony official So the company believes people buy a video console to play graphics heavy games the strategy partly resembles out of Hollywood studios Including Sony's own Sony pictures which had tried to counteract the flood of free video entertainment available on the internet with a handful of Blockbuster franchises such as Spider-Man so we stop there Sony is doubling down It sounds like we're gonna get way more into this on big games and they say here a second Sony official said the company believes people Buy a video game console to play graphics heavy games now. That's not true for me I don't care so much about the graphics, but this is probably true for a lot of people.

What do you think? I think it's probably accurate. Yeah, I mean I there's a reason why especially like in the day you'd obviously play something on console over like a mobile game You know even if there was a mobile game that played particularly well It's just like the consoles are seem like seem like a bit more of a hardcore thing Obviously PC is like way hardcore But I do think it's interesting to say that now in an environment where PCs are so commonplace and readily available and like the access Of them is so much easier than they used to be that's an interesting statement The whole strategy is we're gonna find out is less is more which I think has been clearly their strategy from much of this generation But now I think they're putting it on paper a little bit more or I guess these sources are yeah So I guess it means like just fewer games. Yes, that's what that means.

Well, there's interesting That's interesting strategy. I guess well, let's learn more here Yeah, the article continues Sony's concentrating its attention on large software publishers as it gets ready for the next PlayStation according to Executive of Sony and software makers in general publishers want their games on multiple platforms to maximize sales while console makers look to make deals For exclusive content or an initial period of exclusive sales some executives at smaller game makers said they have felt snubbed by Sony in contrast to Nintendo at the Tokyo game show in September Nintendo is supporting events The showcase independent game developers Sony used to do the same but isn't planning through this year the first Sony official said Sony still welcomes games from independent studios the first Sony official said But the emphasis is on strengthening relationships with large publishers since resources are limited the thinking is the official said that people Play high quality games available only on that platform not smaller games also available on smartphones This is probably the most consequential part of the article so far So to reduce this to people what they're basic this to me and I think a lot of people read this says that Sony is chasing third-party exclusives Now this is incredibly ironic because we just talked about this I think one or two weeks ago Yeah, I got the death of third party exclusives But that's what I get out of it it says in general publishers want their games on multiple platforms to maximize sales What console makers look to make deals for exclusive content or an initial period of exclusive sales and that's coupled with the fact that Sony is Apparently snubbing smaller studios and smaller publishers for relations with bigger studios and bigger publishers And I can verify that that's what I have been told for a long time Yeah, and I think I talked about this on the show that indie developers smaller developers people who have sold millions of games potentially NPSN and a PlayStation feel like they have no relationship with Sony anymore So there's that what do you think about this strengthening the relationships with large publishers? But it's coming at the sake of relationships with small publishers and small developers that Nintendo is now cultivating Yeah, well, I mean, I guess it's just like the trade right there Nintendo's gonna pick up where they're slackin and I guess that's just kind of the nature But I don't necessarily think I think it's like a negative or positive because it just feels like especially now with the way the PSN is Now I feel like we're just getting a lot of bullshit anyway, I feel like I would like to see a slowdown, you know I still think it comes down to curation though. This is the thing that bothers me someone I brought up a good point online I don't know where it comes down to curation But like why because you're strengthening your big relationships.

Why does that mean you can't strengthen your smaller relationships? That's the thing I'm confused about the people that really smaller games like there's a game We'll talk about it a little while there's a game coming out that was just announced. That's coming out next week That was awesome and no one no one published anything about it. There's no story about it anywhere like Why why are they focusing so much on the big guys?

I know those games selling that they do well But certainly people need games to play in between and if you just had a better curated more high quality storefront people would buy and care about These games so it just takes effort and that's the big thing I'm confused about cool go go cultivate your relationship with EA and rockstar They don't think it's worth it. Maybe I mean clearly why me. That's right clearly. It's like why they're wrong.

Yeah, well Yeah, you're right. They are wrong But like I think I think they're in the well they said in the beginning they're like this is a niche They want to this to be a niche thing. I feel like that means there's just gonna be fewer things on the store in general And we're just gonna get far less content, which is kind of interesting. So weird way to go I would like less content We said that for a long time But I just I don't know that that's gonna be the end result What I think is is that there's gonna be an open storefront for anyone to polish anything And so he doesn't even feel like trying to wrap their mind around what it would look like to clean the shit up Yeah, because if I were them not only like clean it up I would probably delete shit tons of games off the PSN.

Oh for sure, you know I would probably be like listen we're having an audit of all this stuff and a lot of this stuff is going away If you bought the game you can still access it, but we're not even gonna sell it And my stuff is gonna take full advantage of that by the way I would imagine so why not you have to remember PlayStation loves indies was like a thing in 2011 2012 2014 They had entire showcases and they introduced a shit ton of great indie games to the world not only from second party Like housemarks games but third party games like mercenary kings and all these games are awesome They had entire layouts and e3 and gdc and if he gets a worth at those at their shows and it's just said that For someone like me that doesn't necessarily want the big budget games all the time. Usually I don't know that they're speaking to me that much They intend on speaking. I think this is a strategy. I mean last year c3 was four games, which is insane actually for real They broke up with those nice little performances on the flute though The flute what's continued Google has said its cloud-based stadium service will go beyond the boundaries of traditional consoles speaking the game developers in March Maj bakar Stadia's by president of engineering said quote you're used to being forced to tone down your creative ambitions that are limited by the hardware But our vision with stadia is that the processing resources available will scale up to match your imagination and quote Sony says a high-powered machine in the home will still be necessary to run the latest graphics Stably because cloud services rely on sometimes bulky internet connections the next PlayStation will be capable of processing 8k ultra high definition graphics PlayStation you said the PlayStation chief Jim Ryan in May Mr.

Yoshida the Sony CEO described the fifth generation PlayStation as quote dramatically increasing the graphics rendering speed End quote and said the change quote clearly demonstrates why it makes sense to have a next generation console and quote to me They don't seem to be speaking about much of anything that is actually selling this unit. Mm-hmm This actually all this actually makes me less excited about the PlayStation 5 because it seems like they're having a hard time justifying it themselves You know like again, it even at the end. It's going back to like graphics rendering speed clearly demonstrates I don't know that clearly demonstrates anything to be honest. I don't know that better graphics demonstrate shit Well, I think it means like the way that the spider-man demo worked like the way that like load times and seamless transitions between Open world sections and you know probably probably more akin to that.

I would hope so Yeah, and finally Chris it says Sony is also looking to make more big budget games at its in-house software studios Which already produce exclusive PlayStation games? Hideki a suina and analyst at ACE research Institute said he believes Sony stressed on a large budget games could lessen variety and lead some Customers to switch to rivals such as Nintendo in contrast the second Sony official said he expected smaller games Would still be released or PlayStation even without extensive Sony support because the popularity of PlayStation makes the platform hard for smaller game developers to ignore Yeah, I don't know. It's true, but I don't know that that sounds very good. That's it doesn't sound very good But it's not wrong.

It's not inaccurate, you know, you're definitely gonna want to be on the PlayStation So that's the article there's a lot in there a lot to marinate over I'm not sure that we have much more to say about it But I did want to bring up its a great piece of journalism since we always shit on journalists and journalism because they usually do a very good job We might as well give credence to a great story So again, if you want to read what we just read Wall Street Journal Sony positions next PlayStation for hardcore gamers by Takashi Mochizuki Publiss on June 29th probably the most insight we've got in the PS5 yet Yeah, and I assume that these guys will continue to flow out and profit in for using sources because none of that came from Sony itself So that's that because any closing thoughts before we move on interesting that they wrote off Google like in that way I mean the way that they did yeah, they say the mid to long-term. They're worried about yeah, which I guess is I honestly like I don't have a clue. They don't have a snowball chance. I don't think I don't think people are even remotely excited about this No, no, it's excited I don't want to say no one that's that's I bought but a lot of what people are excited about in the sense that it's new and interesting But like as far as I'm a consumer and I just I can't imagine wanting to pay for price for a game that I not only can't download and It's all and own but can only stream since I'm saying it seems listen.

It seems inevitable. What's gonna happen? It's well I'm not saying anything which is the same thing but you can install them which is like way better Like I'm way more likely to try that out than something that like I'm gonna pay just for the right to stream something No, it seems like I have to me too. It reminds me a lot of steam or valve with the steam box We just didn't want to do it themselves They were like fuck it You can do it and and if you're gonna do that if you're gonna take a half step then don't step in what happens to the machines literally Nothing right so the same thing happens with Stadia if Google wants to get in then get the fuck in make a hardware make a piece of hardware Console that plays games you can download things you don't want to get in get out You know, that's my whole thing.

It's a total half step and then you get fucking kick in the face I'm telling you like it's I will be shocked if this thing does anything better than not good at all Yeah, there seems to be no excitement about it people seem to hate something new about it every time they Know something about it. Hey, it goes forward thinking that's great But you know there are machines in the 90s. Yeah, I have right idea It's just like I just think the way they're implementing it is completely fucked and also it's just not weird something We're ready for it at all. So I don't know we'll see no, maybe we'll be proven wrong Who knows we're definitely not ready for it in terms of infrastructure.

That's for sure number two July's free PlayStation Plus games have been revealed And they're not all that compelling Revolution soccer 2019 and retro racer horizon chase turbo are the free PS plus games for the month and will be available for the duration of July All you need is an active PlayStation Plus account to grab these games Remember even if you don't tell them playing these games now or potentially ever it doesn't hurt to come on PlayStation So we're gonna add that you're down list in case you change your mind later This is arguably the worst PlayStation Plus games line up since the launch of place I just got rid of what's inside. Hey guys, it's just me or we wait to entitled when it comes to our free PS Plus games each month Every month when they get announced the comments are overwhelmingly negative You're telling me that out of the 24 games you get a year You can't seem to find $60 worth of value just this year We've gotten the complete first season of hitman modern warfare Master Sonic Mania and Borderlands the handsome collection and name just a few I'm not trying to sound corporate apologize Because I agree we've gotten more than a few shitty months of games including this month But are we expecting too much out of the free games every time? I mean, there's only so many games you can really so many so many games exist little ones that you could just give away for a Subs I think that's true, but also it's like I don't know you can't help it be disappointed in something if it's just disappointing Like it doesn't matter if it there's a rationale behind it It's just the immediate assumption is the immediate feeling is that disappointing? Yeah, I think it's a visceral thing for a lot of us I agree actually maybe we are coming a little bit entitled can you find $60 in value at a 24 free games?

Of course, yeah, I don't think that anyone's denying that but I think that Sony needs to be better about Aiming at a cross section of gamers that makes a little more sense of the soccer game and like a little indie racing game That's not good enough, right? Like yeah, I know soccer is you know, it's I think the world of women's world Come on up Maybe they're trying to take advantage of that the other important thing to note is that these are deals with Sony and publishers where they're paid Alumpt some for their game so there might be a not a lot of interest from some people put their game on an Anacolle piece of information on Xbox was that I knew a guy years ago who had who was privy at a company to a company that was Offered low seven figures for their brand new game on Xbox live games for gold and they were like no Sellmore if we sell the game and so they resisted and then they sold only like 50,000 copies and made way less than they were offered So this is a gamble and Sony still won't overtly talk about the deals Although I know about some of them people talking about them, but the situation as it stands I think Jeff might be right Chris maybe we are getting a little too entitled But I think when a battle lineup is bad We should call it bad and remember you said 24 free games a month remember that we used to get what 30? What was it? No, we would get three times that so that's what 72 I remember paying what like $50 a year Next box live just for the privilege of playing online so like I don't know anything is better I guess but yeah, it's a pretty bad lineup objectively They have to do better, you know what I would really love the secrets when PS5 comes out is for them to say listen We're gonna do three games a month.

We're gonna do a PS5 game. We're gonna do a PS4 game We're gonna do a VR game and like that's the weird thing I think so don't you think why not be our game there every month? Yeah, people like you're talking about all these three games well put 12 free VR games in your download list every year And then before you know it someone's like shit like I have all these VR games are might as well I have your unit yeah, so it seems like they're not really using it wisely, you know Like it's not they what do they say? Well, they have like some like 80 million people using the subscription service I feel like they're not really at $60 a year I feel like they're not even really paying attention to the ecosystem at all given like all the Give it all the crap that's on the download queue like all the stuff that's like in the store every day every week I feel like they're barely even paying attention to it.

No, I don't think anyone's paying attention much of anything over there If I ran it it would be a lot better too busy focusing on ray tracing you got to get that ray tracing the low times are really Crazy that ray you have got to see keep talking about the low times because that's the coolest part keep talking about that It kind of is though. It definitely is it's super fucking cool Remember we thought about how Shadowfall instantly loaded when you put it in that was the last game to do that and it was a fucking Launch game, it's like what is going on? All right, Chris will move on again. I'm set number three the walking dead the game the first season of which was released back in 2012 and developed by the Now to fun telltale games is getting a definitive edition via its new publisher walking dead IP owner Skybound entertainment I thought the name of the publisher was walking dead IP owner first.

No skybound of course people I don't know is the owner of the IP and they came in kind of saved the end of season 4 when telltale it Tits up telltale the fin of edition I'm sorry the telltale the benefit of the finitive series comes with all four episodic seasons as well as the 400 days and Michonne DLC so you can play it from front to back there's nothing missing Skybound promises graphical updates to the older seasons as well as bonuses like behind the scenes footage and even game play updates the collection will come Ps4 and elsewhere on September 10th of this year. I'm pretty excited about that actually because I didn't even play the second season I played 400 days. That's the last time I played so I'd be time for me to go in maybe and see what the fuck's going on with What's that little girl's name Clementine Clementine right? What's going on with Clementine?

I remember everyone used to wear those hats They like gave the way everyone had those hats. Oh, yeah, that's just it that IP just makes me upset though Just the show. Yeah, it's just was be awful. It's horrendous.

I stopped at all like the third season I couldn't take it anymore It's like all the worst seasons of Dexter basically No, I stopped watching Dexter as well Why is it that there are so many great ideas for shows and they just can't execute on it's the same thing with that show designated survivor I think a lot of the cases dude. I never tried to like a show more than designated survivor I just want everyone to know that it's that it's a show. I can't even think of the guy's name is famous It's a show about like how the how the government the US government's attack and everyone's killed except for like the housing human or you know Development secretary becomes president. Oh, you talked.

Yeah, we talked about this before. Okay. I can't remember anything I thought about so I'm surprised number four remedy entertainment the finished team most notable for its Xbox exclusives Alan Wake and quantum break as well as the original Max Payne games has officially acquired the rights to its Alan Wake IP Which were previously owned by Microsoft? Where comes by way of a press release from the dev that made note of this in regard to fluctuations on This balance sheet as a result of the publishing rights acquisition This means that remedies Alan Wake games of which there are two on Xbox 360 could conceivably come to PlayStation 4 and other platforms in the future There are however, no concrete plans as of yet something's going on with remedy and Sony that would be great by the way I don't wake is great.

I love Alan Wake a lot, but remedies. I love a remedy in general. So yes, it's good news control It's coming out this summer. Oh, yeah, it's their new game now Sony I don't know something's up with Sony and remedy like for sure I don't know if it's like they're talking about a second party relationship But this is a studio that's gonna be acquired.

I think that would be a bad idea by the way if that happened because I don't think Sony needs them I think they already have like we already have a George, you know like we already we already like how many Georges do you know Right, exactly. So yeah, it's another narrative driven third-person action I don't think they need it but there there's something weird going on with them because Sony is really behind control They're tweeting about it the guys are at the studio and Finland. It's not it's not a trivial thing. They get the Helsinki So I don't know it's a little it's a little I'm gonna keep a close eye on what's going on with this with this whole thing because I'm a little nervous Actually, yeah, I like remedy I think that that would be a nice way to poke Microsoft in the eye a little bit But that's about that's about it I mean you don't you have three studios at least that make better games and of the type of games that Remy takes you already own them No, I don't make better games at the same time, you know Santa Monica makes now the same games better games of the same third-person action Gorilla has both shooting and third-person action experience.

I don't know that you need a remedy like the studios You need like a racing another racing team probably like or you already have political they never really say any games So you're gonna need someone to like an orateem. Yeah, you need some indie get you know Indi devs because there are there isn't talk Jim Ryan gave a speech to Nikaya think which is a Japanese newspaper for people I don't know I didn't write it up because it didn't say too much But basically left the door but being like we are interested in acquiring studios. Well, of course they are please don't acquire remedy You know like you don't know what I don't need them I would prefer remedy puts their names everywhere because they're all pretty good like I don't see the reason why they should be stranded on Hard way you don't see it. I'm just I don't know man.

It's just like my conspiracy theory shit is turning like them getting the IP back And all this it seems I don't know it seems a little weird to me all but I think they also own quantum break So I think they needed to get it back. I think so yeah, they probably do because the whole publishing relationship with Microsoft changed Remember that for people that don't know the reason so so we had no power over indies and any developers back in the ps3 era because they wanted to own IP the famous story is that they actually had a limbo pitch to them and they were like yeah, we'll publish a little bit we want the IP And that's why I love the PlayStation last right now that the whole situation has changed where IP control is much more important This is why in Samya got in bed with Xbox for sunset overdrive because if they made sunset overdrive or Sony's gonna take it right so This creates a different kind of relationship. But now with this I wonder studios are becoming more interested interested in acquisitions once they acquire all their IP So you're not only buying the talent but you're buying the potential of a sequel to Alan Wake you're buying the potential of re-releases Stripping these games off of competitors storefronts, which is something Sony would probably do Microsoft doesn't do that So I don't know anybody that they would do like an epic kind of deal with it just like take here's my thing about this I don't know why you wouldn't like that at this point in time. I don't know why you wouldn't do that It's the same thing.

I said a million times of Minecraft. There's no reason my craft should be on PlayStation It's actually insane, you know like if you said that you can't play it there You know like I think it's a gamble I think that both sides have their rights and their wrongs and their downs But if I were in charge, I'd be like our games are our games and you're gonna play them on our hardware You know and we'll switch when the time comes but I don't know that the switch is yet because if they let's just say they acquire remedy And now Alan wakes a Sony game technically they're gonna now allow this game to just sit on their competitors I'm not saying Alan like anyone gives a shit, but I don't know I don't know that it's time yet to be friendly I think soon but not yet Maybe I don't know it's a lot of time in christmas. I would not take Minecraft off of it. I would not maybe that's a bad example But it's so popular but I find I don't update it or just like have a legacy edition or something You know do something they do though, but they only do that with ps3 and vida.

They still update the ps4 one You know like we have to get on yeah the Minecraft. Yeah, because it old stew I can't remember the name of the studio for what they called it's not for a three three three three I don't know what the fuck was called there's a studio that was responsible for the legacy editions and they announced recently They're not updating them anymore. Yeah, so ps3 and vida are stranded now, but I don't know maybe I'm wrong You guys can write it in time christmas. I'm number five.

Let's get into some politics. Oh boy. Yeah It's not that bad. I know in a letter day the june 17 2019 a letter that only more recently became available Microsoft Nintendo and Sony wrote a unified letter to joseph Arloon the general counsel of the office of the united states trade representative in washington dc The reason this otherwise boring letter is notable however is because it deals directly with potential trade tariffs and how they might affect the gaming industry Particularly in the cost to manufacture hardware and how much that hardware will turn cost the consumer the letter puts forth the tariffs on video game consoles Which could find their way into the finalized paraflist in regards to creation of various goods in shina would quote intercom Developers and console manufacturers put thousands of high value rewarding us jobs at risk and cycle innovation in our industry and beyond and quote The letter later notes that quote economically the video game industry contributes substantially to the u.s Economy and its year on your growth is impressive the u.s video game industry generated total revenue of 36 billion dollars 2017 and 43.4 billion dollars in 2018 reflecting over 20 percent year on your growth the industry directly and indirectly employs more than 220,000 people in america 99.7 of video game companies qualify as small businesses like mine and can be found in each of the 50 states and quote the letter states that 2018 in the u.s alone the co-sign company sold 15 million video game consoles But that margins are raised within particularly with next generation around the corner The letter suggests that the price increase of 25% on gaming consoles which may be necessary depending on the context of the incoming tariffs could I substantial impact on the affordability of the machines and have significant adverse effects on the domestic industry?

So this is very important. I know that that's that's boring for a lot of people. Should I explain what tariffs are? I guess I should probably so I'm only telling you guys this because it's relevant to our console.

Yes, right? I'm gonna be talking about this The idea of free trade means that goods can cross borders and countries and entities so like apple can go trade the iPhone in japan and they don't They're not charged above and beyond just entering the market the price is the price they're able to make the deals on whatever basis They want and that's how it works when you slap a tariff on something that is called protection and protectionism is when you say China's China can manufacture video game consoles for almost nothing So that's why they're able to sell them here from Foxconn They trade them here and there's no boundary for them to just flood our market with whatever they want So the suggestion would be like if something's made in China We slap a 25% tariff on it That means just because the Chinese goods being sold in the United States is a domestic product It will cost 25% more that's basically a tax now You're not gonna pay a literal tax the price will be more and they'll work on the back end So that's the difference between free trade and protection and tariffs suggest economic protection The design behind this is to increase your manufacturing base so that you make things in the United States or in your country So the idea would be like we make this so expensive for you to sell here that your only option is to actually make it here And that creates manufacturing jobs and drives costs down So Nintendo Microsoft and Sony wrote a combined letter to the government saying that they are incredibly scared of being included on the Chinese tariff list Because a 25% tariff increase would make video game consoles unaffordable for a lot of people in the United States keeping in mind Of course that many Americans don't even have the money to pay for a $400 emergency like a blown tie or something like that So what do you think of all this now that I got that all out Basically the video game companies have come together to be like We are scared of what you're about to maybe do to us because we manufacture our console Season by the way, there's no way these things are being manufactured here because if you want to pay fucking $1,500 short Yes, or then you'll manufacture it in Ohio. Yeah, I mean I don't want to pay that much Is that I feel about it? I've know this is like a whole like this wheelhouse is so not mine that I just feel like I'm just like floating around Yeah, listen into the music.

I don't understand. I understand well. I understand that you don't understand like this I mean I understand it on like a base level, but like yeah, I mean I don't know It's weird. Do you side with like a massive corporation that's making money hand over face Or do you but at the same time the peak the consumer hurts.

Yeah, also tariffs are always considered something that hurt ends up hurting the consumer in the short term Actually a bit of a protectionist. I don't really mind the idea of protecting industry The weird thing about the tariff here though is that we don't manufacture these things here So there's you're not really protecting anything that so we got to come and start making guess wars here That's just not gonna happen so they so it makes sense if like there are Mexican dishwashers from uh Kenmore being made down there And then they're also being made in Indiana and the cost of labor down there makes those Kenmores a lot cheaper than the lg's that are made in Ohio so you slap the fucking Kenmores with a tariff that makes a little more sense to me Yeah, I understand that a little bit more but if there's no option and you're really just hurting this thing the best For people that want to know more about this. I won't get too deep into it Go read about Brazil and the Brazilian game industry their tariffs are so substantial that it is almost impossible to buy new video games there And I'm talking about like $2,500 consoles hundreds of dollars for video games Like crazy shit like that if you want to see what the tariff and what protection does to a gaming industry when they literally refuse to do anything about it Go read about Brazil. Yeah, really fascinating.

That's why Brazil dreamcast is all the second shit Still big there master system was huge there for a long time genesis, etc Because they can't import consoles So, yeah, people can go read about that, but this is a substantial problem And I think something we're gonna hear more about yeah in the future because it's not good It's not gonna be good for next year. There's a 25% tariff on the console. No for sure You're talking about a $400 will be coming $550, etc. Good lord Number six coming out of three there were questions as to just how big watch dogs legion would really be after all Ubisoft's claim is that players can take control of literally any NPC in the game meaning that the various permutations possible could seemingly and easily spiral out of control However based on an interview quin hopping the game's creative director gave with edge magazine as relayed by website games radar There are 20 different versions of the game script and it's unlikely to play the same way twice And it's unlikely that you'll be able to play the same way twice all that often quote I don't just mean people saying the same lines we're talking about different characters different voices different acting We're using technology to alter all the voices so that even if you happen to recruit Joe and John And they have the same actor in the same personality when they talk to each other You won't know it's the same actor because we modulate the voices We use photogammetry to capture dozens of different faces Which have been combined using innovative animation techniques to produce literally thousands of unique heads and quote watch dogs legion comes to ps4 and l Swear in march of 2020 this gives us a little bit more of an idea of how big the game is right because you and I during you three were talking about They're making this game seem like it's impossibly big, but now we know it's just very big 20 scripts That's pretty that's pretty interesting.

This is like the most interesting watchdogs. I think it's ever been Honestly without a doubt. I thought it was the strongest showcase at their either either e3 press down Yeah, lots of gameplay which I appreciate lots of game playing it was actually kind of neat I love the idea of permadeath in the game like that me too especially because the characters are always just shit Anyway, so yeah, look at this really matter Yeah, why not why not make them like that's probably the bit that is the biggest chance you'll have again People attach to a main character is making them permadeath in a game like that 100% agreed I'm looking forward to yeah No, it looks neat and since it comes out in March of next year It's time to play the others hopefully I'll be able to do that beforehand Yeah, you don't really need to number seven sounds like a new new you know Cooney games indeed in development where comes by way of the website dual shockers which translated an interview with Japanese newspaper Nikai conducted with Akihiro He know the president of developer level five level five of course is the studio not only behind the first two You know Cooney games the Dragon Quest 8 and 9 the professor late in series the dark cloud series John dark the Enazuma 11 franchise The yokey watch series and more when the topic of you know Cooney came up He noted that a new game will launch at some point after the new no Cooney animated movie launches in Japan Which happens in only a few months at the end of August unfortunately He didn't give any further detail But this is basically the first true confirmation that a third game in the franchise would be incoming which wasn't guaranteed after the Software critical and commercial reception of you know Cooney's 2018 sequel revenue came to the original You know Cooney came to the PS3 in 2011 in Japan and it's 2013 in the West and was based upon a little known Japanese only Yes, release. There's a friggin movie.

Yeah, I'm saying how big is this game? I don't know well the game was a big deal because the studio Ghibli doing the art for it I don't know that they're involved in it beyond that in this movie They weren't they didn't do the second game either So I don't know weird Spencer Braylon wrote it It's a HACC level five is announced that it is developing the next entry in the new Cooney series and that will come out sometime after the movie and I was wondering your thoughts Especially your calling what do you hope that the sequel brings to the series or what mistakes do you hope they correct? I know you personally weren't too fond of me no cooney too. However, it is one of my favorites I saw him play the first but I'm looking forward to changing that this fall I appreciate all the hard work you both put in week after week as it makes my week better every time my big problem with You know Cooney too was it you know I don't mind games being different but you know Cooney was all about emotion It was all about sadness and about poignancy and all those kinds of things and you know Cooney too just totally missed the boat on that and without that I just didn't relate to it as much You know Cooney one is incredibly somber and incredibly down and dire and our game Would you say that it felt just not like a new new Cooney game?

Yeah, it felt You know Cooney's fundamental mechanic was a Pokemon game like you would capture enemies and use them in battle That's like totally done in the second one so like the whole fundamental aspect of it changed along with really not having a very endearing Protagonist like the first one which is about a young boy losing his mom and like going into another world trying to find her She's deceased. It's really fucking sad. Yeah, that was what was so powerful about it and without that I just think that they're kind of missing a lot and So with you know Cooney 3 I hope that they recapture the base essence of what made you know Cooney so fun You don't need to make a deal to big there's way too much shit in it. Yeah, you know I don't think you need like to build a town and like to what is this you know I there's too much being shoved into these games.

Yeah, it just doesn't feel what I'm what I'm gathering It just doesn't feel like the thing that it was established to be yes Yeah, essentially like I play games that are good games, but it's just not good blank games You know I mean I think that you know Cooney 2 I understand for instance Chris why Spencer likes the second one But he had played the first one so he hasn't doesn't have context I think the first one so much more special and so much more impact. Well, it's probably a good game It's not a good new opinion like doo-3 a good game. Yeah, I like you three a lot It's not it's not really doom Chris number eight number eight last week We discussed Bernie Sanders historic status as the first mainstream presidential candidate in American history to take a stand on the unionization of a Game developer and would you say it's in the affirmative now Bernie Sanders has an official twitch presence as well using the username Bernie underscore standards while there isn't any gaming content planned and it seems to be merely an extension of the candidate's content Perliferation approach more than anything it is notable that at 75,000 subs Sanders is already gathering a following on the platform with a little more than a new a few campaign ads and rally videos This is so interesting to me Chris because what clever way if someone used this properly to raise money for your Yeah, it's really smart actually like really a really solid strategy also I just it gives me a chuckle every time I think about it because I just picture I just picture Bernie Sanders on the pd pipe bridge when you said the end one I can't think of it. It's like every time just immense into my brain terrible.

I love it It's I really think now Bernie Sanders. I was reading and again I don't mean to be political unless it's you know again relevant to what we're talking about But it is new polling came out after the democratic debates which is came out today and Bernie Sanders is really slipping in the whole So he's really I mean Bernie Sanders not gonna win the nomination is not gonna be present It's a really smart thing to get involved in this way and very similar I get Bernie Sanders a shit on a credit for just not only with his policies whether or not you agree with him But just setting trends like Bernie Sanders totally controls The whole through line of democratic law right now with what was probably ever just talking about it It's not just coming up. They're trying to be Bernie Sanders So you're gonna see Kamala Harris and poop people to judge and all these kinds of things on on here soon I'm sure I'm burning or on twitch and all that because I think man five dollars subs is what I was I'm like subscribe right you get 350 of that twitch rams I get to dollar 50 of that like if you got a bunch of people and that's a really steady way to raise money for your campaigns incredibly clever If Bernie Sanders actually took the time was smart enough to sit down and actually do shit on twitch Not games necessarily, but just talk to people and stuff. He raised a lot of money for sure.

Yeah, it's a really smart idea I agree props in number nine pub G corporation the aptly named company behind the smash hit battle royale game PUBG has officially announced the formation of a new internal studio called striking distance striking distance will be held by Glenn Glen Scofield one of the early driving forces behind the Dead Space franchise at visceral games and co-founder of Sledgehammer games one of the several Activision own Call of Duty studios interestingly the team will be charged with creating quote an original narrative experience within the pubg universe End quote though the nature of what that experience will be or when it will come out remains to be seen so let's say pubg Is gonna make a single player game which is actually props smart. Yeah props for doing that nobody wants that But you know props in general gotta do something because they're definitely losing script over there I don't know what you could possibly make the game about how the hell do you even do that? Oh? This is your story about the frying pan that you use Okay, yeah, I don't know I just I just write these variety and that's good and it's like it was something that I was talking about fortnight two is like a 4-9 campaign probably be pretty decent so I don't know this is one of the games though Chris or one of the studios I can imagine never comes out with anything.

This is like one of the Yeah, just disappear. Yeah, the game already slick steel is kind of a broken mess So feels an interesting dude. I met him. He's a guy, but I don't know I mean I don't know that Sledgehammer isn't especially amazing studio and I don't know that visceral having made that space a Long time ago.

It's awesome. It's been a long time. So it's been a minute I'll be interested to see what happens with him number 10 as we discussed before either e3 Access publisher electronic arts subscription service would originally launch on Xbox one back in 2014 is prime for lunch on PS4 some five years after Tony told EA no thanks now. We know what the date you can actually Access on your PS4 will be July 24th EA on Xbox one or I'm sorry EA access will function virtually identical to how it does on Xbox one PC subscribers will get access will catalog of EA published games At that percent discount on newer titles that you'll have to buy and more EA access costs for 99 per month or 29 99 per year Joshua Johnson wrote in and said hello gentlemen seems all major game publishers are heading towards monthly service offerings like EA access Or Xbox games pass at first I was annoyed by these services, but it's occurred to me that would be a good thing for triple A games if my budget is only for One major game per month.

That's currently $60 if these services average $10 per month I could subscribe to six services within my budget and get my game that these services provide is this a future of game purchasing If so, how does this affect the indie scene? Thanks for your thoughts and keep up the great work What do you think there's I could be you be doing this but that's a clearly gonna do this at some point So he's gonna do it. So I mean I haven't thought of that specifically That's a pretty good way to think about it But I also can't help but think like it's just getting a bit saturated then like I just can't I don't know like every time I hear about something else I'm just like another one and you have to also add this into you have to keep in mind that people are also paying for like Things like Netflix and Hulu and like things like that So like I don't know like at a certain point It's gonna be like what's the difference between just like buying a game you really want and a cable package But I feel like we're just headed back into the cycle again Yeah, I think you're right I said this on Twitter a few weeks ago and I thought it was salient But I don't know that a lot of people took it for what it is But Hulu is a specifically interesting company because Hulu is founded by multiple networks that proliferate their stuff NBC Fox and Disney where the original or the big three owners of the service and they combined their stuff so they can Compete with Netflix and they compete with Amazon. That's what I would like to see with these passes Now, I don't expect that the first party would do it But like what's stopping Bethesda?

Ubisoft EA Activision all these guys getting together and making a hulu basically everyone takes a piece Yeah, and you make one service maybe it's expensive Maybe it's like 50 bucks a month, you know, but like you get access to everything these guys do or at least their full catalogs of games This is exactly what NBC and Fox and Disney do with hulu I don't understand why these companies couldn't do it with this I know that Disney's now making their own their divesting but that's stupid because they could have just done it with Hulu they already own a piece of it so like I think that the way that you circumnavigate this going back to cable packages and this Alacart situation we find ourselves in is to for these publishers to swallow their pride get together and create something together that is palatable Because I don't know that you're gonna be able to afford getting involved in all these things And I don't know that publishers see my big thing here Chris is that if a publisher like EA five bucks a month, right? EA puts a new game on their service a few months later I'll just pay them five bucks play the game and get out now if you make it more affordable and easier and more set and forget Then that's different. They'll probably stay forever And so I think that they really need to consider that I would love to see some sort of collective approach square An exhibition but that is the devolver everyone just get involved and make something and call it something and everyone owns a piece That's what I would like I went out with one of the make from dead people probably insane amount. Yeah, I would assume so But yeah, I just what's the stop what makes you think that like the obviously Disney invested in hulu and they started and then they broke off And now they're doing the Disney plus thing what's to say that that's just not the inevitable end to all of it They all just break off and do their own thing because evidently Disney found it suitable to do that.

Yeah, they own everything I agree I think I think this well to be fair I think I think you're right But I think the Disney now is different than the Disney that made the hulu deal so I think that like the the reality is just different Hulu is ten years or more ago now when they everyone came together. Yeah, so I don't know Chris I just because I you're right. I have Amazon I am Netflix I have hulu I also have like a bunch of shit under Amazon like HBO and Showtime accounts And so that's only just it like I don't know what I'm spending or where it's going. Yeah, I'm feeling that right now I think I have to draw the line though like I don't know I'd rather actually I'd rather actually buy a game.

I think at this point. Yeah, I think so Well soon happens number 11 it appears that ace team the Chilean studio best known for the two games in the indie game series rock of ages Is working on a game called soul serif which we published by Sega and launched eminently it comes up PlayStation 4 next week on July 10th this game wouldn't be notable except for one thing It's an overt spiritual successor to actor Azer an early SNES game from the publisher and X and developer quintet that went on the command a serious cult following over the last nearly three decades Worth noting this is long before square and X was his own company and quintet is a great Japanese developer that does not exist anymore Act razer is unique because it was half sides rolling action game half God sim and put players in the role of God as he Vanished enemies and side rolling sections before going up to heaven where he being you can coordinate the development of civilization Second ace team already got to hide in the many similarities between the game either going as far as having the same composer from Act razer this is not necessarily that notable, but I love actor azer so much that sounds really cool that when I saw this I was like What like this is totally accurate is completely accurate in 2.5 Unfortunately, but you so for people that don't know actor azer was basically a game You would go down fight this do the sides rolling section once you did it you would go back up to heaven and then organize your civilization in that Area like your houses and roads and all that kind of stuff and then you would go back in and like fight another team So would you like get currency from like the fights or something to spend like on the you got yeah You earned currency points I guess not from the fighting but from when you're in God mode you earn currency that way by doing certain things like you People actually you people pray to you and like beg you for things and like all and like S for offerings And it's really cool. It's a actor azer is a really really really great game And I think it's just trapped behind some closed door at Square and it's like where they refuse to release it the sequel is awful By the way, so this is really exciting so soul serif you never play from dust from dust. Yeah, that sounds familiar Piax 3x 3x6.

Yeah, it's like a weird arcade kind of God. Yeah, I know what you're talking about I think I like it. I think I like it was like in the tropics. Yeah, yeah, I got a sand.

Yeah, I remember that Yeah, I know that just came in my head similar. Yeah, finally Chris It's a wrap up number 12 website a monster reports that adventure game NG is coming to PS4 and V to the sock over JRPG a tell your rise ever darkness in the secret hideout is coming to Western PS4 is on October 29th Previously revealed sRPG this guy for complete plus is coming to PS4 on October 29th and that alliance alive HD remastered Which is a port of the 3DS JRPG is coming to Western PS4 is on October 8th push where reports that multiplayer game hunt showdown Which is already on PC next one is coming to PS4 later in 2019 and that old school Zelda like game forager is coming to PS4 in July and Finally the official PlayStation blog reports that both the mighty switch force collection and fighting game fantasy strike are coming to PS4 on July 25th Chris that's all we have for the news It's time to get into the game releases of which there are not that many as tradition decades you will go first already No, what is it as divine deos come comes to PS4 and PS Vita says a new one yay? Among the many worlds the deities have created there is one world that abounds with life known as as divine I want to say asked divine for some reason. Oh everyone No one's gonna wait for when a spate of disturbances erupts across the globe and an ever spreading Merc threatens to destroy it is I Yeah, the deal the deity of us divine himself takes up his cause to save the world he created with his own hands Whatever he's made up words and brainbreaker comes to PS4 are you ready to break your brain while the kids are having fun with easy mode Master players can use different regions in your brain and insane mode choose from hundreds of backgrounds to create your own atmosphere playing Three different games at the same time requires multitasking skills.

Can you handle it? Oh Vivo comes to PS4 Oh Vivo is a mesmerizing platformer with unusual mechanics where everything is as simple as black and white it is a metaphorical game filled with Illusions and hidden messages in the world of OVivo black and white exist in harmony by constantly intertwining and replacing each other they maintain balance Balance must be maintained balance must be maintained Paradox will come to PS4 and Vida paradox souls and exploration based survival metroidvania that takes hand-holding and throws it out the window Instead of spelling everything out for the player the only way for dr Ali Rose to figure out what's going on in a peculiar test facility is to descend deeper down the rabbit hole and figure it out all by Yourself you are her only hope that sounds like every member of any game But I'm looking forward to playing hopefully not the one with the fucking cheap ass trophies and they're all fucking kills on them Probably is What what this is an app here? I just think the name scraper Scraper first strike comes to PS VR Scraper first strike is the first episode of a planned five-part VR Sci-tech shooter with RPG and exploration elements It will take the player on a journey through a new IP with fully developed characters story arcs and a world filled with unique and exciting environments I just have to say what a game is five part VR Sci-tech shooter that's a pretty ambitious if I do say so myself pretty ambitious My suspicion is we will not see all those see if solitude comes to PS4 when humans get too lonely They turn into monsters set sail across a beautiful and evolving world of darkness and light and discover what it means to be human And bark on a nuanced and intimate action adventure where players must guide K through her sea of solitude in this touching tale of darkness and light Stranger things three the game comes to PS4 stranger things three is the official companion game to season three of the hit original series This adventure game blends a distinctively retro art style with modern gameplay mechanics deliver nostalgic fun with a fresh new twist Explore soft puzzles and battle the emerging evils of the upside down. You'll be great and all until until dawn Stranger things game.

I love you. That'd be super massive. I would like that Tour de France season 2019 comes to PS4 the yellow jersey is yours the official route of the 21 stages of the 2019 tour de France I've been reproduced down to the last detail and will take you from Belgium to the champs I'll ease you can play online for the first time in history of the series challenging up to three other players and shorter more intense races Will a wonderful world comes to PS4 become a god and help change the fate of people even the world In will a wonderful world you will receive letters written by characters living in urban cities by rearranging the order and combinations of sentences in these letters You are going to alter the destiny of whomever that wrote them what I don't know That's coming to PS4 I can't make any sense of that Chris as tradition dictates here on take our symbols we will end our episode with six questions comments concerns thoughts and ideas From the audience remember you get sports on patreon.com slash Collins last and for early and free access to every episode of our show and also the ability to submit your inquiries Just like these six individuals did remember as well We are considering and talking about starting to do a second episode only for patrons of this of sacred symbols beginning in August If you are interested in subscribing for that, I would not do that quite yet, right? Because we haven't finalized anything yet.

We appreciate everyone coming up by the way record breaking month for patreon last month on Collins last And so thank you for that awesome Chris Forbes wrote into us and said hey Colin Chris Why do you think there is such a lack of great superhero games with the obvious exceptions of the Arkham games and spider-man? It seems as though good games based on comic books are Greenlit as often as they should be infamous and prototype attempted to build a whole-fashioned with original superhero characters But it seems lacking during this generation Do you think there's a particular issue with superheroes that makes them difficult to make great games in the genre or is it simply a lack of perceived risk taking by Taken by a major triple-A publisher. Thanks and hope you guys are doing great. I think it's probably a licensing thing Most more than anything but also just like a lot of town a lot of superheroes are just kind of overpowered mostly The ones that work best are characters like spider-man where like yeah, you have freedom of movement But you're kind of limited to like as long as there's a building around you, you know I feel like those kind of characters lend themselves a but like a superman game I don't know how fun flying around is as anthem showed Yeah, so I don't know I'm most offended by Forbes contention that using infamous and prototype in the same sense Well, they are superhero games.

They are always one's super villain game. I would argue what prototype. Yeah, I'm pretty either an idea I'm sure I mean I love prototype honestly I wanted to like it more than I tell you what types like doom But it's like third person and you just like beat people up for the sake of being that is actually a game that is like when people say like People play big games for violence that is actually accurate They can't like I play that game specifically because it was so ridiculously violent I think it was I think for me it felt so insufficient because of when it came out around infamous Yeah, maybe it felt like it felt a bit classic to me for some reason I guess that's probably what it means but I think a lot of this does come back to licensing and I also Think that you know DC. Let's just use DC Marvel as an example I know that there are others they seem to be a little bit more or a lot more reserved with our IP because people have kind of Fucked around with their IP in the past DC's actually been pretty limited with their IP usage I mean the arcing games are I think easily the best superhero games I think about it in the experiment and I like Spent a lot and I think Marvel now is trying to deliberately find partners But even with a crystal that we don't know how the Avengers gonna work out But even with crystal dynamics that game doesn't look very good And so yeah, there's a little bit of nervous because I think that once you spin up a yarn you put it out there I think it removes your ability to do that again for a little while So if you like waste you are good venom game or something then you're not gonna really be able to make one for a while and I was gonna buy it again, so I think you have to get it right and you have to do it right I think that's what's clearly Arkham's relationship Or I should say Roxette's relationship with DC is clearly the predicate by which everything is based today and them really taking their time And you know they're working on a Justice League game it seems and so you know who knows or do they confirm that or deny that they might have denied it I think they might have denied it.

So maybe in Batman games would be a hoon else I never understood like why would you want to do anything other than a Batman game? They make such Arkham Knight was disappointed I think but they made they make great Batman games I was great aside from the driving yeah, I can think the drive yeah, I know I think it's mostly a licensing thing I love the villains. Yeah, they're so great. They're great.

They're really I don't read the comics enough I really like reading the rogue gallery like they have these little write-ups on everyone where they first appeared and who they are I find as a lay I comic layman. I really enjoy that kind of stuff I like that in Spider-Man as well now saying yeah I don't know anything about these characters my first exposure superheroes at all was like this spider-man by never soft on the ps1 It was awesome fantastic by the way in prototype you can eat a man You can eat an old man and then wear his skin you can you can do that part of it I plat him's prototype to I'm sorry to his terrible I didn't like to at all I plat him prototype to crisis and Something else back to back to back for some reason. Oh, that doesn't sound like a good time crisis was rough Kirk wrote in and said hey guys Colin what would you want to see in a GI Joe video game? Not sure if you answered this before but your fireside chat made me wonder since you're so passionate about the property I love you.

Are you into G. I don't you're too young for Joe. I had a G. I Joe But I didn't really like it was so much bigger.

You're at all. I have a doll. Okay, 12-inch. Yeah, so the three and three quarter inch ones from 94 and I'm really into and I think G.

I Joe So there was a G. I Joe video game based on the G. I Joe the shitty live action G. I Joe movie about ten years ago Yeah, yeah, you put it out the game actually wasn't that bad.

It was really fucking hard. It's probably better than the movie Yeah, it was kind of like this top-down shooter thing. See here's the thing about G. I Joe It's chock full of really interesting and really zany characters and it's can't be can't be can't be all day You know and I think that you have to play that up It can't be serious and it can't be it can't be like a stoic approach to like a third person shooter something The reason G.

I Joe is so cool is coder is fucking wild. They seem to have no cover of the bad guys So you have no goal and they all be evil and they just all dress in these ridiculous outfits It's so fucking fun and cool. It's fun and that's what I would want at a G. I Joe.

It's just it's fun So make something yeah that that captures the essence of that fun and unfortunately there are two NES games G. I join Yes games won me by taxon who doesn't exist anymore. I don't remember the other one What other ones these are really good games because they understood they were just basic sides girls like you choose your characters It's basically it's gotta be a toy commercial. Just throw everyone at me.

I want to see everyone I want to be able to play as many characters as I want maybe plays cobra and G. I Joe So that's what I want a G. I Joe game You have to get the campiness right anything that tries to make G. I Joe serious like those movies.

Yeah, it's a failure, right? It's like power Rangers. You can't make power Rangers serious the reason people like it is because it's so ridiculous Exactly people have to embrace camp more Yeah, it's a really valuable tool in creation when you can create when it's basically an excuse to do whatever you want Kind of and I think that that's fun like sometimes it's not I want, you know, Drake's for no charge to be a little more grounded But when you're talking about G. I Joe, you know, like the opening of the G.

I Joe animated I'm fighting around the Statue of Liberty, which is fucking awesome I like one of my favorite scenes and you don't like camping like the last of us Right exactly as it's established not to be a campy universe, but like it's something like why not so I would love I would love a new G. I joke like a $20 down a little bowl You know what would be fun is almost something like Castle Crashers or a game like that where you're like, yeah Basically, Contra Castle Cras is my favorite games over. I'm gonna be a spoiler love. I'm excited hobby road in it's a Colin Chris I come bearing questions and hope you can give answers we can't I mean I don't know if you listen to the show, but we don't have a good answer What are your thoughts on in-game pre-order bonuses for single-player games?

I had to test them but not for the reason you may think I think that they sell you carefully crafted and balanced opening for a game Both worldwide and gameplay wise starting a new story or gameplay driven game with silly alternate costumes extra money or Skill Points items or gear seems to the tracks from the immersion and in-game balance I doubt developers designed the start of the games with these perks in mind I feel like the track from creators intent and so always do my best to drop where to start such items and ignore the extra Skill Points until later in the game, but always feel conflicted for doing so I suppose this may only apply when the bonuses are unlocked immediately upon starting a new game, but I rest my point in question This is actually a great question. My confusion with pre-order perks in game pre-order perks is who gives a shit? That was always my thing It's like you get a rifle skin a fucking bunny hat and you know like and a car and I'm like okay That's gonna get that's gonna get a pre-order of the game. Yeah, especially lately in the last like like seven to ten years They've been really like kind of like here's a hat, you know, here's a skin It's like I don't really get this like I remember like back when it would be like you pre-order this game You get to play as like this really cool character or whatever the hell it's like all right whatever I was gonna buy this anyway, so whatever who cares I don't know if I hate them really I'm really in different towards to them Sometimes I'll even bite very rarely not anymore.

I guess like when I was a kid at you stupid. Here's my contention No, he says that it breaks the balance, but aren't these perks usually given to you in the form of a code? So don't you have to actively go get them? Yeah, yeah You have to make the choice to get and even if it's part of a digital pre-order and it's in the download bundle You still need to download that and that doesn't apply to like every like obviously like there's something that don't even have skill points Of perks or anything like that, right?

I understand point is but I guess what I'm saying is that just don't activate Yeah, it seems like you're working around it, but even if you're pre-ordering a digital game It's still not it's still an ancillary download, so you can still just not download yeah My big thing is is that I still think pre-ordering games is fucking stupid Mm-hmm the only time I ever pre-order games is like the day games coming out and I just go on PSN and download it Because I get a little timer and then I'm ready to go I don't get a code. Yeah, but otherwise like I don't get extra stupid shit just for doing it Yeah, probably but I don't know I have no idea what the fuck I got probably so yeah Is it does it attract from the creators intent? I suppose so but I'm a little more confused by why this is such a valuable Pre-order tool. It's clearly that's the thing is it clearly works like people are if this didn't work It would have gone away, but it's clearly working So you know down you know get your red dead redemption to pre-order and get your assless chaps, you know like that kind of seems to work But I don't get why I think it's I think it's to get people who are going to buy the game anyway and just make them feel like they've They've done something already like they have something waiting for them.

That's beyond just what what's there right even if it is something Meanie on useless when you walk in your dark empty apartment, and that's all you have waiting Yeah, I do feel like it's a psychological thing more than anything for real. Yeah, you're probably right I like pre-order bonuses that are like you get a discount or something. That's cool That's what that's what I understand people pre-order. I don't do that anymore So you can't even do that now yeah, I don't know Scott lammers right into us it's a question for Colin I am meticulous about my hours played being accurate much like yourself How do you deal with resets when you play a game like fell seal sometimes to play a battle for 30 minutes every set with a new strategy of mine?

This is 30 minutes the timer does not capture it's a great point. It's a great point now I am obsessive with clocks and games obsessively like how much time you spent yeah, like I'm almost if a game counts time I almost immediately look into how the time is stopped Like that's one of the first things you want to game in bloodstained you have to stop the time by going to cross media You can't even stop it by just pausing the game So I know that fell seal you can't stop the time at all so I'm constantly loading new saves and stuff like that But yeah, I like that you're right It doesn't represent your loss of battles and all that kind of stuff it represents the experience like the campaign experience So I just like having I like knowing that's the least amount of time I've played I guess But I don't understand these clocks that are just maxed out like someone sent me a picture that playing fell seal had like a 400 Hour clock and they're like behind me, you know And I'm like how did this happen and it's because you just left your game on forever I hate that shit and you don't care about that though obviously I'm not really I'll peek into it out of curiosity like I remember when back in the day when when Bungie put out there like Sats for how long you played and I looked at and I saw that I played it with three for 25 days I was like oh god, that's a really big problem Well, it's a similar thing that remember last year when you had a place you release that data like you said yeah Yeah, yeah, it's like the thing is I don't even think that's many time I think that's genuinely actually actually probably how long I played the game for which is scary it is here Josh Naylor wrote in Chris he said hey Chris and Kyle actually said hi, yeah I have a bone to pick with the PlayStation source specifically regarding the VR library Colin I know you have spoken for a long time about how so many lack of curation when it comes to a Troshus game somehow being Ed to the store let's not forget life of black tiger Let's never forget black that was that arguably the worst p.s. I mean I'm gonna play it is like a tiger and it looked like a ps2 one game. Yeah, ps1 at best Yeah, holy shit like a mid mid mid I just remembered that fucking terrible exactly exactly what I'm talking about how how I think so you might even put a trailer on their fucking YouTube channel for it Well, if you think the regular game library is bad you should pick a gander at the VR library It is filled with the life of black tiger s games that are just saturating the store and hiding the real gems Does so we really care to sell more ps3?

R units with these quality lacking games overwhelming their library as a semi early adopter I would just hate to see this product fail not every game has to be a masterpiece But come on at least put a little effort and check out dead land VR and you'll see what I'm talking about Hmm, it's a problem with the whole storm and we talked about this ad nauseam I'm glad to continue to talk about this and be the strumcris because it's unacceptable especially the ps3 are you would think that you Would really want to cultivate the very best games here so that when a person goes to a person's house and plays it for the first time Then and they go and buy a random game that they're getting something quality so that they go buy the ps3 are it really is weird They just do not care about cultivating a quality library and I'm telling you right now. There is a subjective line about quality There just is like there just is I know that criticism is not objective I'm sorry. I mean an objective line. There's an objective line the subjectivity about reviewing criticism.

That's all great But that's above the line. Yeah, I see your life of black tigers objectively bad like right to help the retribution Whatever is objectively terrible life of black tigers an example of the game where I'm like if you've got any enjoyment out of this I don't believe you and if you really clean that you did then you really don't know fucking anything and you have no right to like to Say like I like that and everything belongs on the store You know what the thing that's we're in a different environment now too where like people will buy a game Specifically if it's terrible. Yes, that's right stream it or to make a video about it or like and stuff like that I don't know if it's like a majority of people probably not but like any sale at all It's probably something that's true black tiger was one of those games So I actually I'm curious because we make fun of games that I'm telling you sell like a few hundred copies of you I'm telling you that's how many copies you see so which is amazing because there's a hundred million ps4 so when you're selling literally 400 copies of your game, that's a you problem, right? So like black tiger was one of those viral games.

I really wonder how many copies it's sold I bet you black tiger might have sold like 25,000 copies or something that I bet people bought it because they knew how bad it was That's the thing like that's some that's probably the selling point of it And I'm sure that's probably the philosophy that some of these people use Yeah, let's just make something shitty and then maybe people will stream it Maybe people make a video about it and then other people will know about it and then they want to play it because it's so bad Have you seen this thing? I think it's a genuine strategy that some people do employ It's just like the trophy strategy. Yeah, that one publisher. It is a strategy.

It's clearly working I guess for some people but man Sony needs to get this wrap your arms around this problem already It's only gonna get worse. That's the problem. This is only gonna get more complicated if you want to have a retroactive Cleansing and purging of your store, but you should then it's only gonna get worse with every week that passes So I really think like comment. I would act I would literally love that job if Sony was like literally listen Colin We'll pay you X amount of money.

This is your job now You just go through PSN and you just mark games that suck and we're gonna delete them Like just like objectively terrible. Yeah, like not like a taste thing right, you know You're not gonna delete persona for right exactly and that's why I said that I should be a council of people like ten people That do it and vote yeah, and literally you have that like eight votes together the game or something like that Yeah, we would be like an overwhelming thing of of not taste. It's literally like this doesn't this doesn't belong This doesn't run there were games on put on so last year on PS4 that we're gonna be stolen assets that they had to take the game down But no one's paying attention anything's going on over there. I also took another game down that literally gave you an automatic Basically play pot and trophy.

They actually took that one down They actually cared about that for some reason that's what you think about when you have something that doesn't run on your store Dylan has the final inquiry Chris he says a hoynadys I need advice I have a game in compatriot who is psychologically unable to finish games whenever he mirrors the end he sets a game down And after several months picks it up again only to restart from the beginning our recent example was restarting persona 5 after 90 Something hours progress. What does this what does this man need in his life to allow him to achieve video game conclusion? That means he's afraid of closure. Yeah, there's my therapist is what my therapist bonus saying maybe there is something about that I actually I actually often stop games near the end too.

I typically go back to that But for some reason I always stop like near the end. I very rarely drive through a game. Yeah It's very well. I'll do it on occasion.

I did with spider-man did it with crash I did with God of War I think red dead this is usually an exception It's usually not the rule that I power through a game like that right? I wonder though in this letter Chris this Dylan are you still doing? Yeah, I have a friend. It's for a friend I swear no one listens to the show as friends.

You're not kidding anyone Okay, cool. That's all I have for this episode of sacred symbols a PlayStation podcast is a beating one hefty was beefy It's a little erotic that word. I like that word beefy. Yeah, it's erotic.

I think so I think food like a leafy hog That's just downright concerning. That's a little disgusting actually really when it comes down to it isn't it? Chris you have any closing comments before we go. I'm going to Vegas.

I'm not looking forward to it because I'd rather work. Oh I will see appreciate it beat up in the street. Yeah, that's happening these days now Yeah, I say everyone's gonna beat up. Yeah, me Chris appreciate your time everyone out there I appreciate you guys and gals listening to say your simple to play So remember throw a support on patreon.com slash councilist and if you want to be a freeloader We love you anyway Leave us nice reviews on podcast services tell your friends and family about our show and be nice to yourself Please be nice to yourself.

It's good advice. Don't throw yourself off a bridge. Do anything like that. No, don't do them Yeah, we'll see you next week for more sacred symbols as they say in France or a boa take care guys sacred symbols a PlayStation podcast Is a product of and a registered trademark of Collins last and LLC and is recorded right here in sunny Santa Monica, California, USA The show is conceived by is written by and is produced by me column Moriarty my co-host is Chris Ray gun You can find me on Twitter at no taxation and on Instagram at cls Moriarty Chris is on Twitter at Chris R Gun and on Instagram at Chris underscore Ray underscore gun sacred symbols is edited by Dustin Furman any snail mail Can be sent to the CLSPO box P.O box one two three three Santa Monica, California nine zero four zero six to message the show online Please use patreon's DM service as you know all Collins last and shows including sacred symbols are fan funded on patreon at patreon.com slash Collins last And the following names are either producer level or higher on patreon and we are eternally grateful for your kindness generosity and fandom Carlos Elgarate C.J Anderson Morgan Ashley Taylor Barkley Sean Badger Shaw Martin Beck Eric Bishop Mark Bojio Eli Bausberg Michael Josiah Borison Barat Boswell Daniel Boyer Spencer Bran McWell Brewer Lennon Brixy Jimmy Brown Josh Boucher Austin Bullock Andrew Burke art Dylan Burns Chris Buston Alex Guerrero Brian catchy tollo Tom Kargill Patrick Harper William O'Carol Ryan coffee old Ryan Chan Travis Chandler Sean Chandler David Chestnut Simon Conception Junior Brad Cooley Geo Corsi Nick Hummings Daniel Diamore Colin Davenport Mitchell Durkash Zachary Douglas Knight draft David Ellis Martha Emery Joe Finelli Eric Vicken Biner Fodio Sfengo's Michael Galley or Chris Galvin Connor Gashian Alex Gates Michael Gates Salem Gottum Elgam Daniel Glassford Tyler Goodwin Josh Grablic Miranda Grubba Tyler Harris Kyle Hagel Wyatt Henry aza Haas as on ice al ricey Josh Yager John Jameson Jimmy Joel Kirch Joshua Johnisson Greg Jewellis and K Jeremy Key Andy Kinan James Kinzler the third Ryan Architred Jackson Lassigua Joe Lawson Donkewie Patrick Leslie Dustin Lewis Keith A Lewis Chad Lewis Lewin Ray Loper Colin Love Josh M Ryan T Mantle Peter Mark Michael Martinez Sean Mason Zachariah McAdoo John McCarthy John McCarthy John McPartly and Andrew Mendoza Christopher Middling Alex Moans Betty M.

Moriarty Ryan Murdock Adam Nick Sean Nolan George A. Nunez Ryan Ot Jorge Palmino Daniel Parsons Brennan P. D. Marius as Peterson Gerald Pennington and Rek Perez Nicholas Perfect James Perone Jason Pettit Jeff Hollard Louis Powell Lawrence F Pro-Cop Andrew Ramos Ryan Reaves Michael Renner Peter Reynolds Shane Ray Oum Jonathan Rice Mark Richardson Toby D.

Remind Schneider Austin Riley Pedro Rose A. G. Rose John Scholes Michael Shanholz Brandon Sharkey Toby Schueman Joshua Smallwood Daniel Shrychars John Kevinillo Amara Ben Thompson Carl Tolman Alan Trembolle Jacob Turboff Phil Van Rault Raymond Vargas Michael Vecvakio Justin Wagammen Ollley Waldron Isaac Walsman Damon Weathers Mike Wayne Corey Wyatt Tony Zuniga casual Misfits Gaming Supershot Ss Game Supershot Ss Ss Ss Ss Ss Ss S Ss Ss Ss Ss Ss Ss Ss Sd Ss Ss