Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden thinks there is a “collapse of creativity” in the games industry.
The 63-year-old businessman – who was President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios from 2014 to 2019 – said he believed the market’s over-saturation of sequels, spin-offs and reboots stemmed from the ever-rising cost of game development, which he theorised lowered many companies’ “risk tolerance” when it came to exploring new I.P.s.
Taking to the stage at Gamescon Asia, Layden said: “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.”
The executive – who now serves as the strategic advisor at Tencent Games – added “AA is gone”, which he said was “a threat to the ecosystem”.
Even so, Layden insisted AA games like ‘Helldivers 2’ are capable of bringing “the new thing” to the industry, though emphasised cheaper titles needed to implement more modern and different monetisation methods if they wanted to be successful.
He said: “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.’
“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]’.”
