Beyond

Latest Episodes:

Who's The Best PlayStation Character (NOT Owned By Sony?) | IGN Live 2026 - Beyond 949 Jun 06, 2026

Show notes

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

God of War Laufey, Marvel's Wolverine, Silent Hill Townfall & More! June State of Play - Beyond 948 Jun 03, 2026

Show notes

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

If GTA 6 is Delayed (Again) Here Are Some Backup Plans - Beyond 947 May 16, 2026

Show notes

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

PlayStation Loses Even More Money on Multiplayer - Beyond 946 May 13, 2026

Show notes

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

Mortal Kombat 2, Resident Evil & The New Era of Gaming Movies - Beyond 945 May 07, 2026

Show notes

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

From Saros to Vampire Crawlers, What Makes a Roguelike We Rogue-Love? - Beyond 944 Apr 29, 2026

Show notes

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

Is 2026 The Year Hollywood Finally Figures Out Video Game Movies? - Beyond 943 Apr 22, 2026

Show notes

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

Bloodborne’s Getting a Movie, We Have Some Questions - Beyond 942 Apr 15, 2026

Show notes

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

How Romeo is a Dead Man Uses Practical Effects To Melt Faces, Suda51 Interview - Beyond 941 Apr 07, 2026

Show notes

This week Max and Brian are joined by the legendary Goichi Suda, AKA SUDA51, and James Mountain from Grasshopper Manufacture, who’ll be translating! SUDA 51 is the director, designer, writer, and producer behind a ton of memeorable and often times weird (but in the best way possible) games such as No More Heroes, Killer is Dead, and recently Romeo is a Dead Man. We ask him all about the creative process of Romeo is a Dead Man, the direction he would take Grand Theft Auto in, his favorite games across all generations and much more. This is a fun one. 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

If a PS5 Pro is $900, What Does This Mean for PlayStation 6? - Beyond 940 Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

Once again, Sony has raised the price of PlayStation hardware, with a PS5 base model selling for $150 more than its 2020 launch price. The PS5 Pro, which had a hefty pricetag to begin with, is now 899.99. Usually, at this point in a console’s life-cycle, hardware is at least half the price it was at launch, but the PS5 has increased by almost a third. So, what does this mean for PlayStation 6? It’s supposedly still a ways off, and really, we can’t argue with that, but it makes us wonder if these current gen prices will come down, or if they’re just paving the way for a $1000+ next-gen console. In other absurd financial news, Sony and Honda’s PlayStation-enabled Afeela electric car has been officially scrapped ahead of its planned release later this year, and Capcom publicly audits the Resident Evil 4 Merchant’s business dealings, which don’t really seem like they’re panning out. Beyond!

00:00 - Intro

00:23 - Sony has raised the price of PlayStation hardware

16:44 - Sony & Honda Just Ain't Afeelin' It Anymore

40:14 - The RE4 Merchant Needs A Financial Audit

46:05 - Brian Went to Japan

53:31 - Final Thoughts

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