Sacred Symbols, Episode 275 | Attention Deficit Disorder

A light smoke is emitting from sunny Santa Monica, but is there cause for concern? Sony's crown jewel studio Naughty Dog has recently let some contractors go, and -- worse yet, if reporting is to be believed -- its long-awaited Factions spin-off has been shelved, with an exiting bigwig and an unknown future. When combined with SEGA's cancellation of Creative Assembly's Hyenas, which was apparently the publisher's most expensive project ever, we simply have to ask: Do games-as-a-service have the bright and airy future once widely-assumed? Or is there a significant deficit of collective attention, time, money, and inclination necessary to support the long-tail of all of these games? Maybe Jim Ryan made the wrong bet, after all. Plus: Spider-Man 2 is the perfect length, GT Sport is going offline, KOTOR's PS5 remake enters a new and even more mysterious phase, Bungie's virtue signaling backfires, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! Will Assassin's Creed: Mirage satiate the old-school AC fanbase? How do we feel about the proper pronunciation of Final Fantasy VII's Cait Sith? If your girlfriend is jealous of your in-game relationships, is that a red flag? Has Colin's psychosis grown to such a degree that it rarely surprises his co-hosts anymore?

Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Intro

0:35:05 - Will we play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora?

0:36:26 - The Lawn Mower Debacle

0:45:30 - No tea. Only hair

0:49:30 - Horoki Totoki Literature Club

0:50:21 - Hulk Schlong for grandpa and baby Colin

0:53:57 - A new PS5 bundle is out

0:59:00 - Spider-Man 2 can be platinumed in about 30 hours

1:12:36 - Horizon: Forbidden West Complete Edition comes to PS5 on two discs

1:16:03 - Gran Turismo Sport is going offline

1:17:46 - Clarity has been given on the Sony hack situation

1:20:59 - Cyberpunk 2077 has surpassed 25 million copies sold

1:25:36 - Star Wars KOTOR remake has disappeared

1:31:49 - RDR1 on PS5 runs at 60 FPS

1:39:17 - Sony Pictures Core comes to PlayStation and PS+

1:48:20 - Bungie is drawing criticism

2:09:26 - What have we been playing?

2:46:29 - Naughty Dog may be on fire

3:16:45 - Hyenas may be a canary in the coal mine

3:30:10 - Is boning Shadowheart as bad as cheating?

3:39:22 - Are we too hard on AI?

3:55:12 - What’s up with mini games in video games?

4:00:46 - If the games industry is doing so well, why are there so many layoffs?

4:10:45 - What do we think about Assassin’s Creed: Mirage?

4:19:54 - Gaelic representation