We've long-wondered what Sony's plans were with its dormant SOCOM franchise (or if it even had plans at all). After all, we can't just ignore the success the likes of Ubisoft have found with titles like Rainbow Six: Siege, and even in a post-Zipper Interactive world, it always felt like PlayStation's tactical shooter never really got a fair shake at success after its PS2 heyday. So color us both pleased and surprised when information from the resumé of a deceased actor pointed towards a SOCOM game that no one had ever even heard of: SOCOM 111. While it's fairly clear this project never got off ..read more

It was just a couple of weeks ago that we were discussing the newest PlayStation 5 Pro rumors, and now we have fresh scuttlebutt to parse through, particularly concerning our precious framerates and the potential of the still-unannounced console. But we can't help but also wonder what PS5's market potential will be. Will it spread the field or, as it's recently been suggested, merely sell to existing PS5 players? Heck, is there any saving console gaming at all in the long-term? Let's take some time to chat about all of that, plus other news: Helldivers 2's new patch, day-one games coming to PS ..read more

Somehow, some way, we've made it to our 300th episode, and we did so without missing a single, solitary week between the first show in 2018 and today. We celebrated our milestone this past weekend with 500 listeners at a sold-out live show in New York City, and we're eager to reflect on what the experience meant to us. But the news marches on, too, albeit somewhat softly, and we'd be loath to ignore it. So let's delve in. The once-leaked Stellar Blade demo is set to be properly released on PSN by the time we publish, Embracer took a $800 million loss in selling Gearbox to Take Two, legendary g ..read more

Various leaks (and our own sources) have long-indicated the arrival of a so-called PlayStation 5 Pro console this calendar year, and now new reports have given us a great idea of what this yet-unannounced machine can do. Similar to 2016's PlayStation 4 Pro, PS5's Pro model largely keeps its CPU functionality in place, instead focusing on GPU-centric graphical boosts that promise to please the discerning eye. Combined with mysterious proprietary upscaling technologies and AI-related features, it sounds like PlayStation 5 Pro will be a beastly machine when it comes to aesthetics. But w ..read more

From this show's perspective, there simply aren't that many rational targets of acquisition in PlayStation's sphere, especially with a tightening economy all around us. But there are two teams in particular -- Helldivers' Arrowhead and Stellar Blade's Shift Up -- that seemed like obvious potential marks based on Sony's historical activity. But with Shift Up about to go public in South Korea and Arrowhead's CEO publicly stating they aren't being courted, are we overestimating these teams' want to join the family? Or maybe it's on Sony? Or perhaps it's something else... So let's discuss. Plus: E ..read more

There's no doubt that the console games space at large is predicated on some shaky economics, and recent layoffs are just the beginning of what will likely be a substantial purging of talent from the ranks of teams around the world. Late last year, we caught wind (via the Insomniac leaks) that Sony was planning layoffs, and would close one of its teams, too. This turned out to be true: 8% of PlayStation's workforce has been released, London Studio is no more, and multiple games have been cancelled, including a Twisted Metal project. Will these drastic moves help buttress the PlayStation brand ..read more

The dam has broken. After paving the way just last week, Microsoft has confirmed its four games that are coming to PlayStation platforms, and they're arriving a lot sooner than any of us thought. One of them -- Pentiment -- is available on PS4 and PS5 alike right now, while Hi-Fi Rush isn't far behind. Multiplayer titles Grounded and Sea of Thieves will round things out, but certainly, this is just the beginning of the migration, right? Other news this week includes the release date for Elden Ring's long-awaited expansion, percolating PS5 Pro rumors suggesting a fall release, the beginning of ..read more

It's been an unusual week in the PlayStation ecosystem, especially in recent years, where the exclusives and heavy-hitters from Sony primarily resided in the single-player sphere. But then a game like Helldivers 2 drops out of orbit, and suddenly we're brought back to the days of SOCOM, Killzone, and others, when PlayStation had an actual online identity, albeit a fledgling one. Could this be the beginning of a great new trend? Or does pessimism reign supreme? Other news this week includes the most vague, circular PR from Xbox that confirms -- yes, indeed -- Xbox games are en route to PlayStat ..read more

We know that Xbox games are migrating to PlayStation, and by the next episode of this very show, we'll have a much better idea of what a future slate of Microsoft products on Sony's console may look like. In the meantime, however, we're left to wonder how we got here in the first place. One could easily argue that PlayStation's and Xbox's rivalry essentially concluded with the end of the 360/PS3 era (Microsoft has been nowhere near Sony in terms of quality, mindshare, or revenue ever since), but we may very well be on the cusp of a true sea change not seen since the decline of SEGA. While we w ..read more

A new State of Play presentation -- arguably the best Sony has ever executed -- has given us a plethora of items to discuss on this week's all-new episode of Sacred Symbols. For starters, we finally have a release date for the amazing-looking second party PS5 exclusive action-RPG Stellar Blade, which we cannot wait to play. We also got a lengthy glimpse at Team Ninja's Rise of the Ronin, confirmation of a near-remake of Until Dawn from Ballistic Moon, a fresh look at Death Stranding 2 en route to PS5 in 2025, and the confirmation of a new, MGS-like Kojima series, presumably on PlayStation 6 ..read more