Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has said that the disappearance of lower budget, AA games in favor of AAA games is a “death sentence.” Speaking at Gamescom Asia, Layden opined that relying on “triple digit millions” costing AAA games is stifling creativity as companies take less risks.
Games should not be led by monetization, says former PlayStation chief Shawn Layden
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Layden once again sounded the alarm about the industry’s obsession with blockbusters, arguing that relying on big-budget games is why we’re getting so many sequels and “copy cats.”
“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,'” Layden said. “We’re seeing a collapse of creativity in games today [with] studio consolidation and the high cost of production.”
Layden then went on to say that monetization should not be the first thing publishers think of when making a game. “If you’re going to pitch me your AA game, and in the first two pages of your deck is your monetization and revenue, subscription scheme, I’m out,” Layden continued. “Your first page has to be ‘This game needs to be made and here’s why.'”
Looking at the state of the games industry right now, Layden isn’t wrong. However, in recent years, we have seen some companies experiment with smaller scale games to fill in the gaps between their schedules, like Ubisoft with Assassin’s Creed Mirage and PlayStation with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
