In a very special IGN Live edition of Beyond, we're deciding which video game character from a non-Sony franchise deserves to be made an honorary PlayStation mascot. Some of the most beloved game characters ever debuted (or found success) on Sony hardware, from Lara Croft and Cloud Stryfe to Leon S. Kennedy and Solid Snake to Pyramid Head and Rayman. And, decades later, many of their respective game franchises are more popular than ever thanks to new installments like Resident Evil Requiem, Tomb Raider: The Legacy of Atlantis, Silent Hill Townfall, Rayman Legends Retold, and the long awaited third part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. So, we're pulling names out of hat, assembling a bracket, and bickering like schoolchildren about who deserves to be an honorary PlayStation character, even if they're just as popular on PC, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sony kicked off the summer of gaming with a pretty hefty State of Play. We got first looks at God of War Laufey, a very extended (and pretty violent) look at Marvel's Wolverine, and a ton of other upcoming titles such as Silent Hill Townfall, Phantom Blade Zero, Until Dawn 2, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and a whole lot more. It was a pretty packed show. Beyond! This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville, Nick Limon, Jada Griffin, and is produced by Nick Maillet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join the official IGN and Podcast Beyond discord! - https://discord.gg/mx62v5pgq GTA 6’s third trailer has not yet dropped as of this recording, which makes the wait until the game’s eventual release in November seem further away than ever. But what happens if it gets delayed, again? Well, luckily there are a ton of awesome new games coming out before then like Wolverine, Blood of Dawnwalker and Phantom Blade Zero later this fall, plus LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight very soon. We talk about some of these games, plus other activities you can do to cope on the off chance that Grand Theft Auto 6 doesn’t drop when we’re expecting it. In other news, we have some questions from our newly minted Discord, asking what we think about such relevant hot-button topics as Saros sales, and its likelihood of getting a PC release, 007 First Light, game studio closures that made us sad, Japan Studio franchises we’d like brought back, plus the video games that need to be reinvented with Muppets. Look, this episode we’re a little loopier than usual, please bear with us. And also: go join the discord so we can do more fun mailbag episodes like this. Beyond! 00:00 - Intro 02:09 - If GTA 6 is Delayed (Again) Here Are Some Backup Plans 26:57 - YOUR Discord Questions! This weeks show was hosted by Max Scoville, Brian Altano, and was produced by Nick Maillet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we're talking about some extremely expensive big-ticket items in the world of game development. From Sony's recent financial earnings reporting a $765 million impairment loss (at least partially due to the underperformance of Destiny 2 and this year's Marathon launch) to SEGA's cancellation of its mysterious "Super Game" announced back in 2021, to reports of Grand Theft Auto 6's budget being over a billion dollars. Not all games can be GTA 6, though, and we're skeptical about Sony's continued pursuit of AAA live-service projects, rather than dusting off a few tried-and-true games from the vaults to earn a few bucks off our nostalgia. After all, there's a long list of PS3 games we'd be eager to revisit on PS5 while we're waiting for whatever the next big first-party projects are. Speaking of expensive things, we also unpack some other things that cost over a billion dollars, like the Burj Khalifa, Yankee Stadium, another Star Wars Trilogy, some Avatar movies, or an actual trip to space. 00:00 - Intro 00:40 - Games are Expensive 05:02 - Sony's recent financial earnings reporting a $765 million impairment loss 24:04 - JOIN THE DISCORD! 24:42 - Games are Very Expensive 25:54 - SEGA's cancellation of its mysterious "Super Game" 35:27 - PlayStation should invest into reviving classic games 38:03 - GTA 6’s Development Reportedly Cost $1.5 Billion, Here’s What Else That Can Buy This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville, Brian Altano, Jada Griffin, and is produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re talking about video game movies again! Specifically, Mortal Kombat 2, which we loved. Resident Evil’s trailer dropped last week, and the internet seems divided on it, but we’re willing to give it a fair shake given director Zach Cregger’s past work, and clear love of the franchise. We dig into what makes a good video game movie, reflecting on the past hits and misses, and looking ahead to a big one: A24’s Elden Ring movie, directed by Alex Garland. In other news, Vampire Crawlers has big sticky hooks and we can’t get enough of it, and Spell Brigade is better with a buddy. 00:00:00 - Intro & Mortal Kombat II Movie Discussion 00:18:51 - Resident Evil Movie Trailer Breakdown 00:46:20 - Vampire Crawlers, Spell Brigade, & Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced is officially real. Can you believe it?! Ubisoft has unveiled the AC Black Flag remake after weeks of leaks, and we're breaking down the full gameplay showcase: what's been remade, what's gone, and what big questions we still need answered before we get our hands on the open-world pirate game. We're also deep in PlayStation leak territory: the Spider-Man face model seems to be teasing Insomniac's next Spider-Man game (or a Venom spinoff?), and Sony Santa Monica's next God of War project is reportedly starring Deborah Ann Woll as Faye, pulling in deities from Chinese, Japanese, and potentially Mayan mythology. Will Marvel’s The Owl appear in either game? We hope not! Then there's Saros. Housemarque's PS5-exclusive cinematic roguelite shooter has gotten its share of reviews, and IGN's 7/10 puts it on the lower end of the critical consensus. We've all played it. The gunplay, the movement, the progression through Carcosa's biomes, all great. But its build variety leaves something to be desired compared to what we love about roguelites. That's got us dissecting what makes games like Vampire Survivors, Balatro, Dead Cells, and Spelunky work so well, and what Saros leaves on the table. Beyond! 00:00 - Intro 01:02 - Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced is officially real 20:44 - Whole Lotta PlayStation Leaks 28:48 - The BEST Spider-Man Villain 32:24 - Saros - A Solid Shooter That Roguelite Fans Will Likely Rogue-love 01:03:39 - Vampire Survivors, Balatro, and More! This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, and Brian Altano and is produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, maybe! So far, we’ve had Return to Silent Hill, Iron Lung and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which were varying degrees of successful depending who you ask, but still to come we’ve got the Johnny Cage-forward Mortal Kombat II, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, the totally bonkers Street Fighter movie. And, hey, if this isn’t this year, it’s not like video game movie adaptations are slowing down: 2027 has The Legend of Zelda, Helldivers and Sonic The Hedgehog and A Minecraft Movie sequels. 2028, meanwhile, will finally see Call of Duty make its way to the big screen, but more interesting to us is A24’s Elden Ring film. Alex Garland has given us some of our favorite genre media of recent years, between Ex Machinia, Annihilation, Men, Devs, Civil War, and of course, 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later. How will he handle a cinematic tour of The Lands Between? Hard to say, but Nick Offerman, Kit Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Ben Whishaw and Jonathan Pryce will be there, so we’re certainly intrigued. Beyond! This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville and Brian Altano and is produced by Nick Maillet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Bloodborne animated feature film is in the works from Sony Pictures and Jacksepticeye, which is a better Bloodborne-related announcement than… no Bloodborne announcement. In any case, we’re stoked no matter what, but we have a lot of questions: what will this movie look like, or sound like? How will it tackle FromSoftware’s infamously dense lore and approach to storytelling in a linear narrative? In other news, Mouse: P.I. For Hire and Pragmata are both out this week, offering extremely different ways to shoot stuff. Mouse is at its best when it leans into throwback slapstick boomer-shooter gameplay, but underwhelms when it veers into detective adventure territory. Meanwhile, Pragmata seems like another banger for Capcom, with great visuals and presentation, but most importantly, really gratifying gameplay that feels good, from combat to basic movement.  00:00 - Intro 00:31 - Jada is BACK! 01:04 - Scan yourself into a PlayStation game...sort of 04:31 - Bloodborne’s Getting a Movie, We Have Some Questions 27:01 - Our Thoughts on Mouse: P.I. For Hire 37:59 - Our Thoughts on Pragmata 55:27 - Poll Results and IGN Live This weeks show is hosted by Max Scoville, Jada Griffin, and Brian Altano. It was produced by Nick Maillet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices