PS5: Rising budgets of blockbusters endanger the variety, says Shawn Layden

Due to its work as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, Shawn Layden is still one of the sought-after interlocutors in the industry.

In a recent interview, Layden spoke about the current evolution of the video game industry and pointed to the ever-increasing budgets of blockbusters, with which the developer studios or publishers could directly direct in a dead end. Since financial risks would have to be avoided at some point, the increasing budgets could lead to the publishers only rely on safe projects in the future. This in turn would have a negative impact on the variety.

Focus only on established brands?

According to Layden, the budgets of blockbusters seem to double with each console generation. Already on the PlayStation 4, the cost of selected first party titles amounted to around 100 million US dollars. If we can not stop the increase in the cost curve, we can only try to reduce the risk, he explained. This puts you in a position that provides you with incentives for successors. What happens is that at the end you have three to four silos of games or play types that continue to exist while diversity is displaced.

As an example, annual offshoots were called Call of Duty or live service games such as Fortnite, which finances with Ingame purchases. At this point, however, it should be noted that Layden at his time as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America expensive projects such as The Last of Us: Part 2 or Ghost of Tsushima, and thus not entirely be innocent in the current development of the industry should.

on the subject : Playstation: Hermen Hulst also promises experimental games

In addition, at least at short notice, it is not to be expected that the rising development costs of Sony Interactive Entertainment have a negative impact on diversity. How Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, recently confirmed, are currently 25 exclusive titles for the PlayStation 5 in development at Sony Interactive Entertainment and the company's partner studios.

According to Hulst, more than half of said projects are based on completely new brands and also promise one or other experimental gaming experience.

Source: Push Square

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