Shawn Layden retired from his position as Chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Sony's gaming division responsible for creating PlayStation exclusives, in 2019, after spending 32 years at the company in various roles.
Since then, the former executive has often commented on industry-related topics. Earlier this year, he suggested that the PlayStation 6, Sony's next console, is unlikely to be completely discless as the physical market is still a sizable one for the company.
A few days ago, Layden was featured in a video interview with YouTubers Naomi Kyle and Pause for Thought. During the 47-minute conversation, the executive admitted that the total install base of console users hasn't changed all that much in the past few generations, and proposed the creation of a 'consortium', like those used for the VHS, DVD, or Blu-ray, to create a unified gaming format that can then be licensed out.
We talk about gaming as being this $250 billion industry, which it is, and have hundreds of millions of users, which it does. But of course, that includes, if you're playing Wordle, you're a gamer. If you're playing Candy Crush, you're a gamer in that number. But the number of discrete consoles sold over any particular generation caps out at about 250 million.
If you line up all the PS1s, Sega Saturns, and N64s, and you go by generations, it's all about 250. The one time it popped to almost 300 was the generation that had the Wii, and people thought you could buy Wii Fit and lose weight. So, we got some non-traditional gaming audience to buy into the gaming industry at that time, but that was an anomaly and we've still flattened out. We need to crack that cap, that barrier. The only way we can do that is if, and I know people call me crazy and throw stones at me when I say this, but you know, Sony's Betamax format lost to VHS for one reason only: VHS licensed its format across many different manufacturers.
Sony held the unique Betamax patent trademark and everything. There was a license we did with Toshiba towards the end of the life cycle, but it never went wide like VHS and people didn't understand the need of having the same machine as your neighbor. You could have an RCA TV and you have a Sony TV and that's all fine. But once your neighbor has picked VHS and you want to watch that tape of that movie, but you have Betamax all of a sudden… So the industry coalesced around VHS. Then, later on, Sony and Philips created the compact disc consortium. They created the patent and then they licensed it out to all the other manufacturers. The same thing happened with DVD. The same thing happened with Blu-ray. They said that we'll compete on the device. So if you get a Bang & Olufsen Blu-ray player, it's going to cost you more than the Sano version. Even though they'll both support the platform, but they'll have different bells and whistles.
I think we need to get in a world where we have a gaming format, and maybe it just comes from PC. Maybe we find a way just to do it all, you know, in a Linux kernel or something. And then we have a consortium around that. We have licensing programs which allow other manufacturers to build into that space and then you can talk about real numbers moving. That's how you get to the ubiquity of the toaster. But right now, I think we're kind of trapped in this containment field.
This is exactly the same problem that Microsoft has been shouting to the four winds for several years now, as it desperately reaches for the billions of potential gamers who could, in theory, be interested in games but have no intention of buying a specific console system.
Layden's vision also sounds pretty close to the single gaming platform ecosystem, which, personally, I've been advocating for several years. And yes, if it ever happened, it would have to be based on the PC. For Microsoft, it wouldn't be a big stretch, as they have already admitted they want to be everywhere the user is. Sony itself is also bringing its games to PC (albeit a bit late) and even to Xbox, as shown with Helldivers 2. The only major player in the console space that exclusively develops games for its own platform is Nintendo.
Their policy appears unlikely to change any time soon. Still, Layden's proposition is worth considering. Would you embrace such a change? Let us know below.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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