Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says too many developers are too focused on trying to make a hit game, as opposed to chasing the ideas they care about.
I don’t think it’s a particularly original take to say AAA games have gotten a bit safe in recent years. As budgets balloon, we’re seeing games follow the same formulas of proven success, while the ‘out there’ experiences are typically relegated to indie developers. It’s how we get the yellow paint, most PlayStation Studios games being a third person cinematic focused adventure game, and every Ubisoft open world feeling the same.
And at the same time, companies are chasing the Fortnite money at every waking moment, resulting in failed live service game after failed live service game because nobody has the time to play five of them at once.
Speaking to The Expansion Pass (below), former CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America Layden says that Rockstar and Take-Two “know what they’re doing [and] they’re fine. But other places…”
Layden hesitates to say “pander” as it’s perhaps “too harsh of a term,” but he believes that a lot of developers are just “trying to build the thing that they think is just going to hit” as opposed to building “the game that someone in there just has bursting out of their brain” with a feeling of “‘I need to build this game or I can’t sleep at night.'”
Granted, I get what Layden is saying, and generally agree with it. But the reality is not quite as simple as that. I’m sure there are hundreds of developers dying to create the idea “bursting out of their brain,” but getting a publisher to greenlight a risk in this day and age is a whole other kettle of fish. The host points out that Xbox has shuttered or divested from studios who were making their own creative visions, like Double Fine and Compulsion Games
Layden notes, “I do feel that artistic vision still requires guidance.” He refers to titles with “strictly artistic vision with no guard rails,” saying he won’t name specific games, but “you know the ones I’m talking about, which just kind of came out to the market and you go, ‘what were they thinking when they built that thing?'” He reiterates, “You still need to have guardians in the room.”
Unfortunately though, it doesn’t feel likely that many places – outside of the likes of Capcom and Nintendo – are too keen on even trying with those guided projects, either. Especially not when millions that could fund an entire game budget is being wasted on the likes of CEO bonuses.