Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden says relying on blockbuster games is “a death sentence”

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Ex-PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has shared his perspective on the current state of the games industry.

During a conversation at Gamescom Asia (via GamesIndustry.biz) with Raw Fury co-founder and chief publishing officer Gordon Van Dyke, Layden talked about the disappearance of AA studios and the negative impact it’s had on the industry.

According to the former executive, who spent 30 years at Sony, there used to be more time spent looking at games than asking about a studio’s “monetization scheme” or “recurrent revenue plan”. He explained that he used to ask simple questions about a game along the lines of “Is it fun?” or “Are we having a good time”, and if the answer was yes, the project would be greenlit.

“You didn’t worry so much about the end piece, for better or for worse,” Layden said. “Of course back then you didn’t make a game for millions [of] dollars. So your risk tolerance was fairly high.

“Today, the entry costs for making a AAA game is in triple digit millions now. I think naturally, risk tolerance drops. And you’re [looking] at sequels, you’re looking at copycats, because the finance guys who draw the line say, ‘Well, if Fortnite made this much money in this amount of time, my Fortnite knockoff can make this in that amount of time.’ We’re seeing a collapse of creativity in games today [with] studio consolidation and the high cost of production.”

Van Dyke later asked Layden whether indie games can be a “beacon of hope” with the loss of AA studios and amid the current monetization trends in the industry.

To this Layden agreed, saying in the business there are blockbuster games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, and then there are the indie titles, but “that middle layer that used to be where Interplay, Gremlin, Ocean, THQ, all those companies, made their money… That middle piece is gone.”

(Image credit: Rockstar Games)”If you [can become] AAA, you survive, or if you do something interesting in the indie space, you could,” Layden said. “But AA is gone. I think that’s a threat to the ecosystem if you will. So I’m looking at indie stuff… With the advent of technologies, like the latest Unreal Engine or what Unity can give you, I think we can all say that the standard quality of video games is pretty high now compared to ten years ago.”

Layden said that thanks to advancements in tools, games have now increased in quality unlike 10 years ago, adding, “Now if we can just get a bit more interest and excitement and exposure for these lower budget, but super creative and super unusual [type] of games… I’d like to see more of that,” he said. “Because if we’re just going to rely on the blockbusters to get us through, I think that’s a death sentence.”

According to Layden, AA has a “natural niche” among the blockbuster titles and indie games, and that is to bring “the new thing” instead of “a dollar store version of God of War”.

“If you’re going to pitch me your AA game, and in the first two pages of your deck is your monetisation and revenue, subscription scheme, I’m out. Your first page has to be ‘This game needs to be made and here’s why’,” he said.

“I want to see that fire, I don’t want to see ‘here’s the chief accountant on the team that’s going to explain to you the [game’s monetisation]’.”

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