Summary
FormerPlayStationboss Shawn Layden sees modern games as suffering a “collapse of creativity.” He said as much during a recent panel talk, which also saw him identify some other concerning trends affecting bothPlayStationand the rest of the industry.
Layden is a long-time Sony executive who spent 23 years at the company. He most recently served as the chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, and had previously also held the roles of Sony Interactive Entertainment America president and CEO, among several others.Layden left PlayStation in 2019, subsequently citing exhaustion as the main reason for this decision. He has juggled between several roles, including that of a strategic advisor to Chinese entertainment giant Tencent, since then.
Layden attended the2024 edition of GamescomAsia, which is currently taking place in Singapore. He was featured in a panel talk on the opening day of the convention, which saw Gordon Van Dyke, the co-founder of Swedish game publisher Raw Fury, lament the disappearance of AA titles. Layden acknowledged this state of affairs, noting how the slow death of medium-budget projects has also hurt the overall diversity of modern games. “We’re seeing a collapse of creativity in games today,” he said, as per GamesIndustry.biz’stranscriptionof his panel talk.
Rising Game Development Costs and Studio Consolidation Hurt Creativity, Layden Says
The former Sony exec identified two factors contributing to this crisis of creativity: studio consolidation and the rising costs of production. The latter are largely a result ofAAA game development cycles getting longer, in no small part because consumer expectations for big-budget titles are at an all-time high. And as AAA game budgets continue to grow, to the point that they’re nowadays in the nine-digit figure territory, publishers' risk tolerance is decreasing, Layden explained, describing this as a natural development.
If we’re just going to rely on the blockbusters to get us through, I think that’s a death sentence.
The Gamescom Asia panel is far from the first occasion on which the ex-Sony official lambasted this trend. Layden has longmaintained that AAA game budget growth is unsustainable, arguing that the industry would do well to put a lid on it. And while he and Van Dyke agreed that indie games can help ease this current creativity crisis, they were skeptical about the potential extent of their impact.
Layden Implores AA Devs To Focus on Fun Rather Than Monetization
That’s not to say they didn’t advocate for more exposure for smaller-scale projects. “If we’re just going to rely on the blockbusters to get us through, I think that’s a death sentence,” Layden said in reference to the gaming industry’s future prospects. On the subject of what the remaining few AA developers can do to stand out today, the former PlayStation executive said they should embrace the medium-budget nature of their projects and experiment in an effort to carve out their own niches. This, among other things, means prioritizing fun above all else. “If you’re going to pitch me your AA game, and in the first two pages of your deck is your monetization and revenue, subscription scheme, I’m out,” he explained.
PlayStation 5 Slim Disc Edition
The Sony PlayStation 5’s slim console upgrade offers the same functionality as the launch unit but throws in increased storage (1TB), an additional front USB-C port, and a much more compact frame, making for an ideal console purchase for users still on the fence.Priced $50 more than its digital edition, the disc edition already trades at a $50 discount over MSRP and comes with a Dualsense controller, an HDMI 2.1 cable, an AC power cable, and documentation as part of the package, making for a complete package for gamers looking to hook one up to a monitor or TV out of the box.
