The former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Shawn Layden, has had a lot to say about the state of the industry since he left Sony in 2019. In a recent interview Layden expanded on some of those points–warning against studio consolidation and advocating for game preservation in the wake of Microsoft’s massive acquisition of Activision-Blizzard finally going through.
In an interview with the Lan Parties podcast last week, as picked up by Kotaku, Layden reiterated some of the biggest issues he sees in today’s game industry–including consolidation, which has been a major talking point during Microsoft’s battle to acquire gaming giant Activision-Blizzard-King.
“My concern around consolidation is that often it impacts creativity,” Layden explained. “For instance, it takes some kind of small, independent, wildhorse studios and brings them into a larger conglomerate and essentially time slows down the bigger you are, time slows down.”