Shawn Layden, ex PlayStation, warns of ever-higher gaming budget – Xboxygen

CEO of Sony Worldwide from 2018 to 2019 and a major player in Playstation for 32 years, Shawn Layden has since decided to join Streamline Studios to support them in their video game development strategy. It was in an interview with Alexander Fernandez, CEO of Streamline Studios, that Layden spoke about his experience at PlayStation and his fears for the future of the video game industry.

The explosion of production costs

In addition to some discussions on the challenges of Streamline Studios and their ambitions, the former CEO of Sony evokes the exponential increase in production costs for video games in recent years. He himself was a major player in the development of the biggest productions released by Sony such as Uncharted, Ghosts Of Tsushima or Horizon Zero Dawn. The budget allocated to these licenses quickly reached 100 million euros and according to him, the projects planned on PS5 could reach 200 million euros.

He regrets that this mode of production pushes the largest studios to leave annual suites to be profitable, to prioritize quantity over quality. Shawn Layden takes the example of Call of Duty or Madden in particular, but this is a phenomenon that can be observed in the biggest sports franchises (FIFA, NBA 2K) and in the rise of “game service”, free-to-play games. play and micro-transactions.

A brake on creativity

With such sums at stake and the centrality of shareholders in this industry, it is clear that this trend is preventing studios from taking risks, or even making major decisions. We remember, for example, the chaotic release of Cyberpunk 2077 and the shareholders who had pushed CD Projekt Red to release an unfinished game.

To another extent, the disappearance of many franchises, the lack of novelties and innovations in video game catalogs are consequences of this mode of production. Whether at Sony or at Xbox, the appearance of new licenses out of the ordinary and offering new proposals has been very rare in recent years.

Awareness that gives hope

Even if the ever higher budgets of big productions could make studios take less risk, and if the current generation of consoles does not include many real novelties, the future is not so sad.

We can notably mention the release of Starfield next year as an Xbox and PC exclusive, hoping that Bethesda has had the means to release a unique and refreshing game. On the Microsoft side, we can also highlight the highlighting of very good independent games with the Xbox Game Pass such as OuterWilds, Hades or Stardew Valley.

For his part, Shawn Layden talks about his ambition to facilitate the development of diverse and unique games with Alexander Fernandez within Streamline. He wants to rebalance the current offer in the face of not very innovative annual licenses.

Either way, seeing mainstays like Phil Spencer or Shawn Layden take this topic seriously is reassuring. This awareness raising can only be beneficial for the video game industry and for gamers. It remains to be seen how the budget for big productions will evolve in the future and if Shawn Layden’s predictions will be confirmed.