#298 | I Know the Pieces Fit, 'Cause I Watched Them Fall Away

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: Ex-second party partner Deviation closes its doors, Embracer continues its sell-off, a trailer leaks for Insomniac's cancelled Spider-Man multiplayer game, Final Fantasy XVI's PC port draws near, and more. Then: What do we think of Sea of Thieves' success in pre-order on PSN? What does a "community manager" do? Are Trophies worth protecting? Did Colin's undying love of Long Island unite two star-crossed listeners? Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. 0:00:00 - Intro 0:30:55 - Shoutout Ray 0:35:30 - Pride of Long Island brings Sacred fans together 0:39:57 - Sacred's Point of No Return 0:42:14 - Vice President Aaron Rodgers 0:47:58 - RIP In Peace 0:49:53 - Goth Girls 0:53:12 - Colin's Beyond 200 Promise 0:55:48 - Are new studios a good idea? 1:01:42 - Why is every game a lightning rod? 1:13:37 - New PS5 firmware 1:18:16 - Spider-Man: The Great Web 1:24:51 - PSN most-downloaded games 1:29:53 - Embracer jettisons Saber, 4A Games and Zen 1:31:18 - Helldivers 2 introduces flying bugs 1:35:26 - FF16 is coming to PC 1:38:12 - Mega Man tease? 1:40:58 - RE4 Remake surpasses 7 million sold 1:41:39 - System Shock Remake comes to PS4 and PS5 1:43:13 - MultiVersus returns 1:45:17 - What Are We Playing? 2:04:26 - Deviation closes 2:13:27 - Shift Up's evaluation 2:23:38 - Grandia 1 and 2 are coming to PlayStation 4 2:29:27 - PS Plus new games 2:37:48 - More games made for less money? 2:44:55 - Sea of Thieves is the most pre-ordered game on PS5 2:57:20 - Instruments over games 3:04:43 - Are community managers needed? 3:10:17 - Why does games media turn a blind eye to racism? 3:35:34 - AITA for protecting trophies? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices