Former PlayStation CEO Says AA Is Gone and That’s a Threat to the Ecosystem Going Forward

Former PlayStation CEO Shawn Layden believes that the video game industry is losing its balance. Layden, who once led Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, thinks that the era of AA games—those mid-tier titles between big-budget blockbusters and smaller indie projects—is essentially over, and that’s not a good sign for the future of gaming.

In a conversation with Raw Fury co-founder Gordon Van Dyke at gamescom Asia, Layden spoke about the problem facing the industry today. He said,

In the past we spent a lot more time looking at games and not asking ‘what’s your monetisation scheme’, or ‘what’s your recurrent revenue plan’, or ‘what’s your subscription formula’? We asked the simple question: is it fun?

Layden explained that, back in the day, the main focus was simply on making games fun, not on how much money they would make. Since it cost less to develop games, studios could take more chances, which allowed smaller games to thrive.

However, Layden highlighted how different things are now,

Today, the entry costs for making a AAA game is in triple digit millions now. I think naturally, risk tolerance drops. And you’re [looking] at sequels, you’re looking at copycats, because 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.’ We’re seeing a collapse of creativity in games today [with] studio consolidation and the high cost of production.

When Van Dyke asked about the future of indie games, Layden admitted that while indie projects are still thriving, the real concern is the loss of AA studios. He said,

That middle piece is gone. If you [can become] AAA, you survive, or if you do something interesting in the indie space, you could. But AA is gone. I think that’s a threat to the ecosystem.

When asked about what strategy to adopt for the few remaining AA studios, Layden explained that instead of trying to compete with the high production quality of AAA games, AA studios should focus on finding their place by doing something different. Layden said their focus shouldn’t be about creating “a dollar store version of God of War,” but rather about introducing fresh and new ideas to the industry.

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[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]

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