Former Sony executive Shawn Layden has suggested that releasing PlayStation games on Xbox might not make sense given PlayStation‘s market position. During an interview with Eurogamer, Layden also said that there would be a very negative reaction from the market if Sony was to follow Microsoft’s footsteps.
Releasing PlayStation games on Nintendo a different beast than launching them on Xbox
Layden pointed out that PlayStation has been ahead of Xbox in every generation that they’ve competed, including the seventh generation, which saw a fierce competition between the PS3 and Xbox 360. Despite a series of missteps, the PS3 ultimately “tied” with Xbox 360 in North America and U.K., while comfortably maintaining a lead elsewhere. He added:
Should PlayStation, with that huge market lead and the momentum, apparently, going forward, should they build versions of their games to run on a competing platform of much smaller size and scale? As the saying goes, I don’t know if the juice is worth the squeeze.
Layden reckons that negligible additional sales aren’t worth the negative impact on PlayStation’s brand, and pointed out how fans react when PlayStation games are launched on PC. While he doesn’t understand why players get upset over a first-party game launching on PC a good while later, he pointed out that the backlash would be much worse if PlayStation games landed on archrival Xbox.
As for PlayStation games launching on Nintendo, Layden thinks that both platforms have historically “lived happily side by side in living rooms across the world,” so he doesn’t foresee that move backfiring.
