Sacred Symbols+, Episode XLI: Crossings and Xpectations

I don't disagree that, as a loss leader, the Gamepass model can cause issues. As I've said on some previous shows, there are a lot of developers very worried about it. That said, Capcom's sales may be low on Gamepass, but they may be pleased with their revenue.

Colin Moriarty

Unfortunately the maths for Gamepass that Colin mentions is way off due to the constant offers of 1 dollar subscriptions. But your points are exactly what I am concerned about.... Games offer tens of hours of content and need to stand on their own and justify the time and money invested in them.

Bryan King

Gamepass is also just everything they wanted in 2013 repackaged with Phils face on the front... people are so stupid to fall for this crap. DRM, always online, no ownership of the games.....

Bryan King

I thought the whole presentation was trash tbf. Also to some of the comments above about Gamepass... gamepass is a loss-leader service that has undercut new game sales on Xbox. Capcom recently released their sales on Xbox and they are pathetic, absolutely tiny compared to PlayStation sales for the company. The overall effect of gamepass is negative, it results in a lack of sustainability in the industry and it is from the company that oversaw microtransactions, dlc, paid online and subscriptions become the norm when they had a dominant position for a brief period during the 7th generation....... mark my words, the minute they get the upper hand they will screw everybody.

Bryan King

I don't know that your primary concern will come to pass. For me, the bigger thing to be concerned about is how the limited economics of Game Pass and PS Now will affect new games from being made at all.

Colin Moriarty

Thanks for reading my question about Game Pass, Colin. My main concern is a future where the pay per game market has been crushed and I have to subscribe to a service - Game Pass or PS Now - in order to play the latest games. The service would still probably offer value for money for someone like me, but more casual gamers who just want to play Fifa will surely be ripped off. The equivalent I think would be someone who only watches one sports team once a week. Probably not getting value for money from their cable package.

Ed White

I don't think you guys did but I listened while I was at work so I might have missed something

LuckyMcSchmucky

I have no idea that a game has sold more based on any aesthetic, necessarily. Not sure how that would be tracked.

Colin Moriarty

I love the ruthless market economy of the game. Capitalists, all.

Colin Moriarty

That's the way Animal Crossing has always been designed. Did we bring this up?

Colin Moriarty

I truly believe that the weird aesthetic of the talking heads looked cheap! It was very weird.

Colin Moriarty

Whislt I agree with your visuals vs performance preference, has a game ever sold more copies because of higher frame rate? They certainly have by having better graphics. I think the majority of people that buy games don’t care about FPS but they are drawn to the prettiest looking games (in trailers where the former is is relevant)so publishers will always prioritise visuals.

Dan Parsons

Listening to this now and got to laugh at the animal crossing segment. I just don’t understand the animal crossing fascination, however my wife and daughter (who rarely play games) are both addicted to it, I’ve been hearing about turnips for weeks. My wife has an app to track turnip prices, in thinking of putting her in charge of the stock portfolio.

Andrew McGregor

If you have a pc, Bright Memory is already on Steam.

Cash

When you guys talk about Animal Crossing at the end I think the way the game is designed to take time between objectives (multiple island upgrades take a day or a couple days to get built) so at first people would skip time using the console clock to get their upgrades instantly and the people that would just wait for the upgrades in real time or just play daily or every couple days or whatever are finally getting to more of the creative points in the games. Not disagreeing just adding on to the reasons!

LuckyMcSchmucky

Colin, the reason the views for the Inside Xbox are "soft" is because Microsoft deleted the initial stream, then re-uploaded it due to the amount of dislikes it had. Before they deleted the video, it had ~70k dislikes. By the way, Aaron Greenberg is the Head of Xbox Marketing - why in the flying fuck is he using a camcorder from 2004? It looked like 240p resolution, honestly. Aren't we already seeing the results a service like Gamepass means for first party games? Microsoft should've been smart enough to the read the tea leaves and quadrupled down on HellBlade 2 and ditched Bleeding Edge when they had the chance. The game is an utter grease fire at the moment - as of writing this, they're a 20 players online. Also, why in the living hell is Obsidian making Grounded? MS 1st party output this generation has been dismal - these games aren't helping with that either.

KB

West Wing talks about this, too. LOL.

Colin Moriarty

I'll wait for The Observer on PS5.

Colin Moriarty

I agree.

Colin Moriarty

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Colin Moriarty

Thanks!

Colin Moriarty

I'll look into it!

Colin Moriarty

Sorry to hear that. =\

Colin Moriarty

‪I’ve been watching this show called “explained” on Netflix and there’s this episode explaining the next pandemic... I’m floored guys.

D'Ante Almo

The Medium was my favorite thing I saw! I absolutely loved Layers of Fear. Haven't gotten around to 2 or The Observer yet.

Seraph Stray

I don’t know why Xbox just didn’t call this event “game event” gameplay is so misleading and implies something bigger then what we got

Andrew

I’ve been playing a lot of switch since I got animal crossing. It’s my first AC gaming, really having fun with it. I’m also really curious about Bright Memory Infinite. Definitely the highlight of Inside Xbox.

D'Ante Almo

This was one of the best SS+ episodes! Great work!

Daniel Boyer

Colin, surely a game for you is My Friend Pedro? Given your love of twin stick shooters, perfect runs, a reasonable challenge.

Lee Bull

I'm from Kansas City MO and it's not looking pretty here unfortunately

FluffyNeko

Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed. =)

Colin Moriarty

Tweet him!

Colin Moriarty

I just gotta say. This episode was one of the best episodes of Sacred Symbols +. I primarily play Xbox but play tons of PlayStation and love my Switch. I loved the different opinions and viewpoints on all the topics. The dynamic of you and Chris was at its peak powers in this episode. It’s one of those episodes where I think to myself “this is why I gladly pay for this.” Keep up the great job. Love the show.

Kendrick Calles (Ca-Yes)

Yo Colin, Chris said he has a new found love of Horror Games. You should reccomend The Evil Within 2 to him. You don't have to have played the first and I think it's easily one of the most slept on games of this generation. Love the pod!

Jeremy Miller

<3

Colin Moriarty

Not greedy, just like my twice a week C&C fix. :)

Biv

Gotcha.

Colin Moriarty

Getting greedy, are we? =)

Colin Moriarty

But that's backwards compatibility, it's just marketing speak. Sony will do the same thing: Watch.

Colin Moriarty

I was so excited about Ascent until I saw gameplay. So wish this was an RPG.

Biv

Out of curiosity, why not make the persona thing just an "extra"? Getting new, occasional content seems fun.

Biv

It sounds to me like you're describing backwards compatibility. BUT! We will see. I do like the name.

Colin Moriarty

Don't lie to my face, Danny.

Colin Moriarty

Good to know, thank you!

Colin Moriarty

I guess the beauty of our content is COVID has changed nothing in terms of our fidelity.

Colin Moriarty

I can only judge what it looks like, but I haven't read very deeply about it. Looks like a Housemarque game to me!

Colin Moriarty

Interesting.

Colin Moriarty

Shut up, Piers.

Colin Moriarty

Colin I dont think smart delivery is just a patch for the xbox one version of the game. Developers are making a version for series x and a different version for xbox one but it’s the same license. Calling it marketing speak for backwards compatibility seems to kind of miss the point.

Gabe

Oh, yeah, that's an obvious route.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you. <3

Colin Moriarty

I know, I just like making fun of people, because this is one of those games that lots and lots of people pretend they played.

Colin Moriarty

Okay, fine.

Colin Moriarty

Glad you enjoyed the episode! Thanks for listening.

Colin Moriarty

It looks awesome.

Colin Moriarty

Basically.

Colin Moriarty

See, I loved the original on GameCube because it was so quaint, and required a lot of that old-school Internet flair to trade and shit. I really don't get it either, but more power to the people that are enjoying it.

Colin Moriarty

I adored Galaxy. That'd make me pick up my Switch.

Colin Moriarty

Colin, I believe Smart Delivery is slightly different than just being backwards compatible. I'm basing this entirely on marketing speak that Microsoft has provided- but, Smart Delivery provides an actual Xbox Series X game license in addition to your Xbox One game license. On other words- instead of just being able to emulate your Xbox One game, your Xbox account is provided a brand new Xbox Series X game SKU to play on the new hardware. It's more akin to what we know as cross-buy with PS4 and PS Vita. When you buy a game on one system, you unlock the license on the other.

Jack Sibert

I played Shenmue! Even have the plat for Shenmue 2!

Danny Akenson

Hey Colin! I just wanted to let you know that the video you watched is the 27 minute video they uploaded AFTER the livestream and it doesn’t include the developer interviews. The intro with Aaron Greenberg and Matt Booty was also cut. The livestream was over an hour long and right now the VOD has 1.2 million views, 45k likes and 34k dislikes. The stream was only 4K 30fps, but the 27 minute video they uploaded after is 4k 60fps. Not really sure why they didn’t stream it 4K60, especially because most of those games will probably run at 4K60 on Series X. But what do I know! Also, I just wanted to say that as a huge Xbox fan I’ve always enjoyed your coverage of the brand as an outsider. And it’s great that Chris is invested in the Xbox ecosystem because that should lead to some great discussions between you guys. Can’t wait for the episode all about Xbox Game Studios in July :) SS+ is just the best!

jonbx32

I liked the Inside xbox fine. the games look pretty cool. the presentation doesn't bother me because i've seen a lot of the same quality in podcasts i'm watching now during quarantine, or even sports shows. Watch First Take on espn, theres a dumb mic noise and video quality drops. vampire the masquerade on pc is one of the best rpgs of all time. it's one of those games like baldurs gate or whatever i hear a lot about from pc community

B00ch

layers of fear 2 is lowkey great

B00ch

The games that I hear Action RPG label slapped on the most are games like Diablo, Path of Exile or Torchlight. So if they are directly referencing that genre I believe The Ascent is gonna play less like a twin-stick shooter than we think.

Drew Sleezer

The ascent is an exclusive Ryan McCaffery confirmed that as well.

Adamthm

Mr. Nook is not a raccoon. He is a Tanuki. Please do your research Colin.

Konami are clearly on there for the pro evolution soccer series.

Nlindz27

Great content as always! Also, I'm happy you're working with Matty on the Persona 5 spoilercast. I'm not a JRPG fan, but I'm happy to see your brand grow! As always, stay safe guys!

Anthony J Sanchez

@49:00 I played shenmue. I played shenmue much as an early teen, that a few years back, I went to Yokosuka, where much of the first game takes place, practiced martial arts in an empty parking lot, searched for the Three Blades (a Chinese owned, restaurant, barber, and tailor) and played in an arcade, all while listening to the OST alongside my brother. and I've got the pics to prove it. we're out there, we're a dying breed, but we are out there.

Toren R. (KESA)

Stop value propositioning me. My wallet isn't a piece of meat!

Max Stahl

Really enjoyed the episode fellas. I recently picked up Animal Crossing after seeing my wife play it. She's not even a gamer! We went out to Target to pick up a switch lite for her just so she could could play Animal Crossing. I've got to admit, it has its claws in me. You have goals to obtain at your own pace. It's surprisingly deep. As Chris stated, it's very relaxing.

Billy Wright

I'm so ready for Scorn to finally be out. I remember the teaser coming out years ago and I was afraid it died in development. The aesthetic is insanely cool.

Silentandcliche

Let's put random words in a hat and the first two pulled out is the name of our game, and out came Scarlet Nexus.

Piston Pants

Bloober's games always look really cool, but they are basically walking simulators. Glad it's coming go Game Pass, it's always worth checking games like theirs out.

Josh Walker

If you like the game, I genuinely think that's great, but I've thought about this a LOT and Animal Crossing is completely devoid of ANY of the characteristics of what draws me to gaming. I struggle with understanding the appeal of a lot of Nintendo games, but NONE quite like this. but, I'm clearly the outlier, and again, happy for all those who are loving it currently.

Toren R. (KESA)

I love my Nintendo Switch. I just can't wait for Mario Galaxy on switch rumors be true on horizon ;) One of the best mario games ever.

Saulius Vekteris