Former Sony CEO Shawn Layden has liked a large number of tweets criticizing PlayStation’s leadership and the direction the PS5 is headed in. This includes users bemoaning current Sony Interactive Entertainment President Jim Ryan, with Layden seemingly in agreement with those who believe the company is not in safe hands.
Layden has been liking tweets criticizing PlayStation leadership over a period of hours today, after a report surfaced suggesting there is infighting within the company. Among Layden’s liked tweets was one in which a user suggested that “the difference between Shawn Layden and Jim Ryan’s leadership is becoming increasingly apparent.”
Shawn Layden likes tweets criticizing Sony’s Jim Ryan
A Bloomberg report published today claimed that Sony is now completely prioritizing blockbuster games, moving away from investing in smaller, riskier creative pursuits in favor of putting its weight behind blockbuster-producing studios like Naughty Dog. This has also reportedly seen its developers being funneled into these studios, causing a high turnover rate in the process.
Since the report was published, Layden has been liking dozens of tweets calling for him to return to PlayStation. This includes a clip from E3 in which Layden praised the cult classic game Vib Ribbon, saying that it “wasn’t a multi-million seller, but that wasn’t the point,” in a stark contrast to Sony’s current approach.
6 years ago @ShawnLayden delivered this mostly forgotten speech for PlayStation at E3, which for some reason it really stuck with me as the thing that makes PlayStation so appealing. The CEO saying "It wasn't a multi-million seller, but that wasn't the point" at the time was nice pic.twitter.com/iK6KdnXm4w
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) November 30, 2020
Layden also liked a tweet proclaiming that “Sony is dead,” another criticizing Sony for downscaling its Japan Studio, and more generally criticizing Jim Ryan’s leadership of the PlayStation brand.
While Layden hasn’t directly tweeted about the report on Sony’s alleged infighting, his liked tweets paint the picture that he disapproves of the company’s current direction. Though it’s unlikely that Layden will return to the PlayStation brand, it seems as though the former CEO is in agreement with other Twitter users who believe that PlayStation was safer in his hands.
Layden succeeded Jack Tretton as Sony Interactive Entertainment America CEO in 2014, before stepping down from the company in 2019. It was widely reported that the reasons behind this were due to an internal struggle between Layden and Ryan regarding the company’s restructuring.
In other PlayStation news, it was reported that Days Gone 2 was canceled due to the company’s reaction to its mixed critical reception. A new PS5 error has also concerned the console’s users due to it forcing a factory reset.
