Former PlayStation president Sean Layden said it was a “death sentence” to see low-budget AA games disappear in favor of AAA games. Speaking at Gamescom Asia, Layden opined that the reliance on “triple-digit million dollar” costs for AAA games is reducing companies’ risk-taking and stifling creativity.
Games shouldn’t be driven by monetization, says former PlayStation chief Sean Layden
As GamesIndustry.biz reported, Leyden once again sounded the alarm on the industry’s obsession with blockbusters, saying that the reliance on big-budget games has led to so many sequels and sequels. He claimed that this was the cause of “copycats” being created.
“The financial people who draw the line say, ‘If Fortnite made this much money in this long period of time, my Fortnite copy can also make this much money in that amount of time.'” said Layden. “Today, studio consolidation and rising production costs are disrupting creativity in games.”
Additionally, Layden said monetization shouldn’t be the first thing publishers think about when creating a game. “If you’re trying to sell me an AA game and the first two pages of your deck have monetization and revenue and a subscription scheme, I’m out,” Layden continued. “The first page should be, ‘Here’s why we need to make this game.'”
Looking at the current state of the gaming industry, Rayden is right. But recent years have also seen companies experiment with smaller games to fill gaps in their schedules, like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage and PlayStation’s Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
