The previous CEO of Sony Laptop Leisure America, Shawn Layden, has had rather a lot to say in regards to the state of the {industry} since he left Sony in 2019. In a current interview Layden expanded on a few of these points–warning towards studio consolidation and advocating for recreation preservation within the wake of Microsoft’s large acquisition of Activision-Blizzard lastly going by.
In an interview with the Lan Events podcast final week, as picked up by Kotaku, Layden reiterated a number of the largest points he sees in at present’s recreation industry–including consolidation, which has been a serious speaking level throughout Microsoft’s battle to amass gaming big Activision-Blizzard-King.
“My concern round consolidation is that usually it impacts creativity,” Layden defined. “As an illustration, it takes some type of small, impartial, wildhorse studios and brings them into a bigger conglomerate and primarily time slows down the larger you might be, time slows down.”
Whereas Layden says the follow may be optimistic in circumstances the place a smaller studio in any other case would have shut down, he is nonetheless involved in regards to the impression of consolidation on the {industry} as an entire. “I am simply involved about what it does to the creativity urge inside the studios, and may they hold that kind of impartial creativity alive or do they only get absorbed into the bigger complete?” he elaborated. “Time will inform, however it is a bit regarding. If you go from a whole lot of voices to dozens of voices, you lose some voices.”
Layden additionally has issues in regards to the lack of selection in at present’s video games, with many large AAA studios tending in the direction of the identical genres and codecs. “If we proceed to coalesce across the 4 or 5 genres, then we cannot get the brand new gamers as a result of these folks have already stated we’re not fascinated with your genres,” Layden stated. “Do not child your self that somebody who’s stated ‘no’ to Name of Responsibility for the final 15 years goes to begin abruptly saying ‘sure’ to Name of Responsibility.”
The previous PlayStation boss additionally spoke on the subject of recreation preservation, saying he want to see extra folks within the {industry} fascinated with preserving previous video games for future generations. “This is not throw-away stuff we’re making,” he stated. “That is stuff that needs to be round for a very long time as a result of future generations will take pleasure in it in the identical method that we have now and it is prison that we’re not doing extra to guard it.”
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