He believes that a consortium should be formed to allow console manufacturers to create a unified format for their games.
Shawn Layden retired in 2019 from his position as president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, the division responsible for developing exclusive games for the PlayStation console. He spent 32 years at the company in various roles. Since then, the former executive has often spoken out on industry-related topics. Earlier this year, he suggested that the PlayStation 6 would likely not be completely disc-free because the physical market is still significant for the company. A few days ago, Layden appeared in a video interview.
During the 47-minute interview, he admitted that the total number of console users has not changed much over the past few generations. He also suggested forming a consortium similar to those used for VHS, DVD, or Blu-ray to create a unified gaming format that could then be licensed.
“We talk about gaming as this $250 billion industry with hundreds of millions of users. But, of course, that includes people who play Wordle. If you play Candy Crush, you’re included in that number too. However, the number of discrete consoles sold during any given generation caps out at around 250 million. If you line up all the PS1s, Sega Saturns, and N64s by generation, the number caps at about 250 million. The only time it reached almost 300 million was during the generation that had the Wii; people thought they could buy Wii Fit and lose weight. We got a non-traditional gaming audience to buy into the gaming industry at that time, but that was an anomaly, and the numbers have flattened out since then. We need to break through that cap and barrier.
The only way to do so is if—and I know people will call me crazy for saying this—Sony’s Betamax format lost to VHS for one reason only: VHS licensed its format to many different manufacturers. Sony held the unique Betamax trademark and patent. Towards the end of its life cycle, there was a license with Toshiba, but it never became as widespread as VHS. People didn’t see the need to have the same machine as their neighbor. You could have an RCA TV or a Sony TV, and that was all fine. But, if your neighbor picked VHS, and you wanted to watch a movie on a VHS tape, you were out of luck if you had Betamax. So, the industry coalesced around VHS.
Later on, Sony and Philips created the Compact Disc Consortium. They developed the technology, patented it, and licensed it to other manufacturers. The same thing happened with DVDs. The same thing happened with Blu-ray. They said, “We’ll compete on the device.” For example, if you buy a Bang & Olufsen Blu-ray player, it will cost you more than a Sony version. Even though both will support the platform, they’ll have different features. I think we need to move towards a world where we have a gaming format that comes from PC. Maybe we can find a way to do it all in a Linux kernel or something. Then, we can have a consortium around that. We could have licensing programs that allow other manufacturers to enter that market, and then we could talk about real numbers. That’s how you achieve the ubiquity of the toaster. But right now, I think we’re trapped in a containment field,” Layden said.
Microsoft has voiced this same problem for years as it tries to attract the billions of potential gamers who are interested in gaming but don’t intend to buy a particular console. It wouldn’t be a big leap for Microsoft because they’ve already said they want to be where the users are.
Sony is also porting its games to PC, albeit a little late, and even to Xbox, as Helldivers 2 shows. Nintendo is the only major player in the console space that develops games exclusively for its own platform.
Source: WCCFTech
