Ex-PlayStation director Shawn Layden has shared his views on the current state of the games industry.
During a conversation at Gamescom Asia (via GamesIndustry.biz) with Raw Fury co-founder and chief publisher Gordon Van Dyke, Layden spoke about the disappearance of AA studios and the negative impact it has had on the industry.
According to the former executive, who spent 30 years at Sony, more time used to be spent watching games than asking about a studio’s “monetization program” or “recurring revenue plan.” He explained that he was asking simple questions about a game along the lines of, “Is it fun?” or “Are we having a good time,” and if the answer was yes, the project would be greenlit.
“You didn’t worry so much about the ending, for better or for worse,” Layden said. “Of course you weren’t making a game for millions of dollars back then, so your risk tolerance was quite high.
“Today, the entry cost of making a AAA game is now in the triple-digit millions. I think risk tolerance is obviously going down. And you (watch) sequels, you watch copycats, because the finance guys who say the line, ‘Well, if Fortnite I’ve made so much money in this time, my Fortnite knockoff can make this in that time.” We’re seeing a collapse in creativity in games today (with) studio consolidation and the high cost of production.”
Van Dyke later asked Layden if indie games can be a “beacon of hope” now that the loss of AA studios and current industry monetization trends are a reality.
Layden agreed with this and said that there are blockbuster games in the industry Call of duty And Major theft carand then there are the indie titles, but “that middle layer where Interplay, Gremlin, Ocean, THQ, all those companies used to make their money… That middle layer is gone.”
“If you can get to AAA, you’ll survive, or if you do something interesting in the indie space, you could,” Layden said. “But AA is gone. I think that’s a threat to the ecosystem, if you will. So I look at indie stuff… With the advent of technologies, like the latest Unreal Engine or what Unity can offer you, I think we can all say that the standard quality of video games is quite high now compared to ten years ago. “
Layden said that thanks to advances in tools, the quality of games has increased now, unlike a decade ago, adding: “Now if we can just get a little more interest, excitement and awareness for this lower budget, but super creative and super unusual (type) of games… I’d like to see more of that,” he said. “Because if we’re just dependent on the blockbusters to get through, I think that’s a death sentence.”
According to Layden, AA has a “natural niche” among blockbuster titles and indie games, and that is bringing “the new” rather than “a dollar store version of God of war“.
“If you’re going to pitch me your AA game, and the first two pages of your deck have your earnings and revenue, subscription schedule, then I’m out. Your first page should be, ‘This game needs to be made and here’s why,” he said.
“I want to see that fire, I don’t want to see ‘here’s the team’s chief accountant who’s going to explain the (revenue-generating game) to you’.”