Ex-PlayStation boss says that big-budget titles are a ‘death sentence’ for gaming

THE gaming industry has struggled recently with waves of layoffs washing through the industry.

In the last twelve months, Xbox has laid off over 2.5k employees, and this is far from the only company that has cut its staff.

Studios are closing left and right, and others are seeing large reductions in the number of employees.

A major part of the problem is that even when games are thought of as successful by fans, executives still see them as a failure.

Despite Star Wars Outlaws selling roughly a million copies according to analysts, Ubisoft delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows following “learnings” from Star Wars’ failure.

As reported by GI.biz, ex-PlayStation executive Shawn Layden thinks he’s pinpointed the issues with the industry.

He believes that too much money is being spent on making games, and the focus has been taken away from creating things people love.

Layden says: ‘[In the past] we spent a lot more time looking at games and not asking ‘what’s your monetisation scheme’, or ‘what’s your recurrent revenue plan’, or ‘what’s your subscription formula’? 

“We asked the simple question: is it fun? Are we having a good time? If you said yes to those questions, you’d usually get a green light. 

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

This echoes what many people have said about the industry. As games cost increasingly more money to make, they need to sell more copies to be successful.

However, there are also more games releasing than ever before, meaning that there’s more competition for gamers’ money.

When there are more games on the market, companies sell fewer copies of each game.

Layden continues: “Today, the entry costs for making a triple-A 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.’

If you want to read more about PlayStation, check out the PlayStation The Concert world tour.

All the latest PS5 reviews from The Sun

Get the lowdown on more of the latest PS5 releases from our expert reviewers.

• Stellar Blade
• Eiyuden Chronicle
• Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide
• Berserk Boy
• South Park: Snow Day
• Alone in the Dark
• Expeditions: A MudRunner Game
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Skull and Bones
• Helldivers 2

For Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch, check out our full game reviews section.