Ex-PlayStation Boss Believes PlayStation Is Over-Spending, Under-Distributing

I all the time appreciated the candor of Shawn Layden, the ex-head of PlayStation who left his function as CEO of SIE in 2019. And now that he’s out of the corporate, he has been much more candid about his opinions on all issues, together with his former firm.

Layden gave an fascinating interview to GamesBeat that touches on a frequent subject recently, the ballooning price of AAA video games and the way it’s changing into unsustainable, which incorporates being an issue for PlayStation.

Now that video games price manner, far more than they used to, the economics of scale for distribution not make sense with the restricted PS4/5 set up base. They usually can’t adequately get better these prices or make important revenue irrespective of what number of are offered throughout the PlayStation ecosystem, and that drawback is simply growing in time. Right here’s Layden:

“Should you’re spending $250 million, you need to have the ability to promote it to as many individuals as attainable, even when it’s simply 10% extra. The worldwide put in base for consoles–if you happen to return to the PS1 and every thing else stacked up there, wherever in time you take a look at it, the cumulative consoles on the market by no means will get over 250 million. It simply doesn’t. The {dollars} have gone up over time. However I take a look at that and see that we’re simply taking more cash from the identical individuals.”

Layden cites PlayStation doing an excellent job with Helldivers 2, releasing that sport on PlayStation and PC on the similar time, which has dramatically elevated its fortunes. However whereas PlayStation has dedicated to doing that with different f2p multiplayer video games, they nonetheless appear to need to institute prolonged delays for PC releases of their massive cinematic video games. They’re extra open to adapting them interval, but it surely’s nonetheless a interval of lag. And there doesn’t appear to be any probability in any respect of them placing their massive video games on Xbox, one thing Xbox itself is now beginning to dabble with.

As a lot as I like Layden, I’ve to take his opinions with a little bit of a grain of salt, given what he’s presently doing. Layden is now an advisor to Readygg, a blockchain/NFT endeavor. Right here’s the way it’s described on the web site:

“READYgg’s layer 3 platform gives plug-and-play infrastructures constructed on layer 0 for seamless interoperability throughout blockchain networks to combine web3 performance and NFT assist into any sport.”

We definitely haven’t seen many mainstream video games with a want to combine “web3 performance and NFT assist,” as the thought has failed colossally within the core gaming scene, and former, frequently-cited “success” examples like Axie Infinity all however collapsed. Extra video games are being made but it surely’s nonetheless a small scene. Right here’s Layden on the thought, addressing crypto sport skepticism:

“That’s all blown by means of, I feel. Numerous the NFT craze is gone now. Crypto is the place it’s. However we’re trying on the enabling expertise. There have been the get wealthy fast schemes three to 5 years in the past. However do these underlying applied sciences have a higher objective? Are they fixing issues? I take a look at READYgg and say, “Are you able to resolve the issue of used digital video games? Can we create a market the place everybody who added to the worth of that sport, largely the developer and writer, can reap rewards by means of the reselling of that IP?”

Yeah, not likely optimistic about that, even when I do recognize his bigger factors about PlayStation and the challenges they face now. I don’t suppose smaller firms making a bunch of blockchain video games with altered income fashions are the answer to bigger price range and distribution points, even when it holds as a distinct segment market. However PlayStation, and different AAA studios, are going to wish to provide you with new methods sooner or later right here.

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Choose up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.