In a nutshell: Shawn Layden is singling out platform exclusivity as one among the predominant challenges the trendy gaming industry should handle. Consumers are totally different now, and massive corporations like Sony or Microsoft want to grasp the right way to correctly serve them with out taking pictures themselves in the foot.
Before being appointed as Tencent Games’ new strategic advisor, Shawn Layden held varied roles at Sony. The former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios (now merely referred to as PlayStation Studios) mentioned in a latest interview that exclusivity is the Achilles’ heel of contemporary gaming improvement.
Layden talked with VentureBeat about the turbulent occasions the industry is dealing with proper now, providing his recommendation after becoming a member of Sony in the Eighties and spending a number of many years in the enterprise. Development prices for a single AAA game now exceed $200 million, Layden mentioned, which signifies that you can’t afford to promote it on only one {hardware} platform.
Exclusivity reduces the publishers’ addressable market, particularly when the world is offering so many live-service video games or free-to-play merchandise. Bringing a game to extra platforms means “opening the funnel” to get extra folks in, he mentioned.
In the free-to-play world, exclusivity is senseless, as 95 p.c of customers are anticipated to spend completely nothing on a game. Layden remarks on how Helldivers 2 proved this straightforward reality, popping out on PlayStation and PC concurrently. Hardware builders are at all times attempting to keep up their “stranglehold” on the enterprise by creating platform-exclusive video games, which has confirmed to be a profitable apply up to now.
But “client minds are altering,” Layden mentioned, and they aren’t shopping for a brand new cell phone each 9 months anymore. Hardware corporations will be unable to retain their exclusivity stranglehold for lengthy, and they should settle for a brand new future the place folks will get their gaming repair in numerous methods – and elsewhere.
The “beast” of gaming is adapting to those new enterprise alternatives, and market strangleholds cannot be maintained eternally, Layden added. Console producers are certainly displaying that they’re now extra keen to offer enhanced assist for different platforms.
Sony lately confirmed its plans to deliver PS5-exclusive video games to PC, whereas Microsoft is working to port Xbox and PC unique titles to PlayStation 5. As for cellular, issues are nonetheless a bit hectic, and Apple is attempting to maintain its stranglehold on the iOS market so long as it might probably. Brussels authorities are watching.
