Sacred Symbols, Episode 234 | Our Favorite PlayStation Moments of 2022

By doing it at least somewhat through respectable means like Sony and Nintendo have. Buying studios is fine. We’ve all watched them buy numerous studios for 3 years. Buying Bethesda was more annoying, bc they’re huge with many studios, and several of the studios have more than one team within them. There was no work; just throw money and done. Despite that, most people still didn’t put up much of a stink. ABK is on another level. Do you realize their purchase price is not much lower than Sony’s current total worth? Sony’s market cap is around $100bil, and MSFT is purchasing ABK for nearly $70bil. So in addition to MSFT’s what, 25 game studios currently (to Sony’s 16 or so), they’re looking to absorb another publisher not much smaller than Sony. Microsoft with its acquisitions is like the person in a group project who didn’t do any of the work but still gets the good grade. Nobody ever respects that person.

Miracle Peach

Sony has been on top for 27+ years due to the lack of competition during the PS and PS2 eras. They entered with a collapsing Sega and a Nintendo who was still stuck in the 80's. Sony has dominant market share which is at around 70% worldwide. People complain about Microsoft spending their money on acquisitions yet these same people complained for all of last generation for Microsoft to get more studios and have more games. How does anyone think they should have accomplished this? By copying Sony? Nope. What worked great for Sony doesn't mean that the same would work for Microsoft especially since Microsoft is going up against two dominant competitors in Sony and Nintendo. Taking another 10-20 years working with studios and then acquire them would be a waste of what's most important - time. Microsoft squandered last generation (no argument there) and only had 5 studios going into 2018. How did you or anyone in general expect Microsoft to compete without spending money? I mean come on.

peter42O

It no doubt is, I will always be a Nintendo Child.

Colin Moriarty

Colin slagging of Sega is clearly his inner Nintendo child coming out right? Outside of Sonic games they're smashing it of late, the Total War series have found great success with the Warhammer games, Football Manager is always going to do well, Persona and Yakuza are more popular worldwide than ever. I think we need explanation on the "sega stink" as it doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

Mark Whittington

Maybe Microsoft will make a game sometime.

Colin Moriarty

Hey, they can have their own thing. That's cool.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you!

Colin Moriarty

Yes, poor $1.8 trillion, 20x-larger-than-Sony Microsoft, who’s purchased about 20 other studios in the past 3y. The reason Sony/PlayStation has been on top is bc they have spent decades creating and fostering studios and games. Conversely, Microsoft has squandered much of Xbox’s existence in this regard. What Microsoft has done in the past 3y is the equivalent of pay-to-win microtransactions. How can you, in any way, respect that—let alone defend it?

Miracle Peach

joseph lemons

My nephews, 7 and 9, got Sonic Frontiers for Christmas and they love it. I would explain to them how shocking the pop in is, but I don’t think they’d care! So weird that Sonic is huge amongst that age group now. Then again they also got Pokemon and love that. We forget there’s a whole chunk of the market which doesn’t give a f about technical quality or innovation. If it’s got their favourite characters in and is vaguely engaging that’s all they want.

Rich Price

Really great episode fellas!

Brannon H

We shall see. Maybe the Vivendi hostile takeover would have been the best course.

Colin Moriarty

Maybe.

Colin Moriarty

Atlus is like SEGA's Bethesda. They have nothing to do with them, and aren't good because of them.

Colin Moriarty

One day, perhaps. I really did like it, just didn't vibe with the combat.

Colin Moriarty

Uncharted 4 between, of course. And Lost Legacy.

Colin Moriarty

Good to know.

Colin Moriarty

I liked it fine. Was totally unoffensive to me.

Colin Moriarty

That's a fine choice.

Colin Moriarty

Ubisoft is an odd case in that it seems to be expanding, somehow. I haven’t dived into financials, but my perception is some free to play product they have is a revenue vacuum. Because nothing we’re seeing in the United States is screaming quality, outside of the AAA Assassin’s Creed games. Concerned about the medium term for that business but remain hopeful the current ownership steers the ship right instead of more Chinese money coming in, or otherwise.

Kickstand

I think you guys bring up Metacritic/review scores in general way too much.

Zack E

The SEGA slander this episode is wild. I’d argue Sonic Team is the only dev under their banner that seems to have major issues with their games. Then again, I’m also a huge RGG and ATLUS fan, so I’m a bit biased.😅😂 Merry Christmas guys!

Nierly Crazy

I think it does have sequel potential, especially with the stinger at the end (which was honestly the best part because they actually FEEL like the characters). But I'm not holding my breath.

Hidari Shotaro

@colin As I drive to Pittsburgh for the holidays, I’m hearing you sing the praises of Last of Us and Bioshock and being the greatest of all time and that nothing has bested these titles and I’m tired of hearing this shit. I wrote in about this a year ago and I’ll do so again now (at the risk of sounding like a Dark Souls fan haha) BUT if you fancy yourself a fan of Bioshock you are doing yourself a major disservice by not sitting down and finishing Prey by Arkane. Outside of its learning curve/imaginary hump to get over, Prey is better than Bioshock in almost every conceivable way. It’s the sequel and progression Bioshock fans never got from Ken Levine and also never played. Yes Bioshocks setting is more original I guess but Preys is so much more fleshed out/thought out/realized. Im writing this in the mindset of “I’m your friend and I know your taste of game” and you would adore this game. I’ve finished it 4-5 times over the last 2 years and every time I complete it I say, “I can’t believe this game exists and nothing comes close to it.” (Lower the difficulty on your first play through. You WILL be back to up it on the second.) Congrats on another fantastic year and Merry Christmas 🎄

SeanG123

I just feel like ND never got The Last of Us timing right after the first game. The first one was amazing at the time, but it took them 7 years to give us a divisive sequel and now they're blasting us with this franchise. A show, a remake, and maybe part 3? Let a good thing be. Uncharted 2 is still ND's best game, sorry Chris it ain't crash team racing 😉

Reese Redmond

I wasn’t expecting Graham Hancock talk to pop up, he is interesting for sure. He writes fiction as well, I plan on looking into that soon.

TL

it was good

Sean Y

I really abhorred the Uncharted movie, even separating it from the source material. It felt like an AI-generated popcorn flick; no soul or passion to be felt.

Hidari Shotaro

"Father Christmas" by The Kinks is my favorite Christmas song

NotYurRealDad