About this episode
Geoff Keighley's 'The Game Awards' festivities didn't disappoint this year. Quite the contrary, it was arguably the single strongest showing of new game announcements the industry has seen in seemingly forever, and it was capped-off with what many of us have long awaited: Naughty Dog's new game. For the first time since 2005's Jak X: Combat Racing on PlayStation 2, Sony's crown jewel studio is readying a product that's aligned neither with Uncharted nor The Last of Us. It's called Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, it's about a spacefaring bounty hunter and a mysterious alien planet, and it's coming to PlayStation 5 at an undetermined point in the future. Naturally, we have much to discuss. Other TGA announcements of note include a surprise update for Helldivers 2, Capcom reveals in the form of new games in the Onimusha and Okami series, a brand new multiplayer Elden Ring spin-off called Nightreign, our first look at Borderlands 4 and The Witcher IV, the long-awaited revival of the Turok IP, the first new 2D Ninja Gaiden in more than three decades, and much more. And there's a regular ol' episode of Sacred Symbols underneath all of that, too, focused on the purported leak of Bend Studio's new game, the death of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a serious lawsuit filed against Bungie by a fired executive, final word on long-defunct vaporware PS4 project Wild, and more. We wrap things up with listener inquiries on topics like rumors of an upcoming Steam console, parasocial relationships in the creator space, the ability of dialogue to ruin a perfectly good user experience, and a conundrum surrounding perpetual hiccups and $100 million. Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. 0:00:00 - Intro 0:35:57 - Tri Breaker is out now! 0:40:41 - Colin and Charli XCX 0:43:38 - $100 million but hiccups 0:50:04 - PlayStation Wrap-up 1:05:33 - Sony shares are trading higher than any point since 2000 1:07:19 - Thoughts from employees about Sony x Kadokawa 1:14:02 - Ex-Bungie director is suing 1:22:44 - UI designer leaks Bend's next game 1:27:37 - Apple and Sony are partnering on PSVR2 controllers for Apple Vision Pro 1:35:09 - Publishers are worried about their releases around GTAVI 1:37:13 - Suicide Squad support is ending 1:41:39 - What Are We Playing? 2:15:08 - The Game Awards announcements 4:04:44 - New info on Wild 4:12:28 - New PS Plus games 4:15:23 - PSN top games 4:18:16 - Does Steam OS going everywhere affect Sony? 4:34:06 - Too many tutorials 4:41:05 - Our thoughts on parasocial bonds 4:52:25 - Realizing you've changed through media 4:59:36 - Are clips hurting the industry? 5:11:10 - Main Quest vs Side Quests Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices