Ex-PlayStation Boss on $200 Million Games: “Exclusivity Is Your Achilles’ Heel”

[Tsing]

Spending $200 million on a video game and launching it exclusively for a single platform isn't the greatest idea these days, according to Shawn Layden, former president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, who mentioned in a new interview with GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi last week about how console exclusivity is an "Achilles' heel" for companies, one that reduces the market and overall reach of a game.

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[DrezKill]

File this one under "no sh1t sherlock".

On the other hand, it's the only real reason to get a specific console, cuz of the games you can only play on it. Personally I never liked it though. I feel like I should be able to decide which platform would work best for me for any particular game. 99.98% of the time that's gonna be PC.

As I've been saying for the past few years now, 9th-gen really feels like this might be the first console generation where I don't end up with a console, ever since I started in 3rd-gen with a 2nd-gen console. Well, technically my Switch is a 9th-gen console (cuz it follows 8th-gen Wii U and/or 8th-gen 3DS), so I guess I'm technically part of this gen. But after this, I dunno about that. By the time the 2000s rolled around I wanted EVERYTHING on PC. Now it seems that is finally happening, more or less. Well except for Nintendo, but the community has provided a solution for that.

 

[MadMummy76]

I'm not so sure about that. At release they might be leaving money on the table, but over the entire life cycle of a game sadly I think they make more by double or triple dipping. Ie.: Release the game on your current gen console, then release an enhanced edition on your next gen one soon after. Then release a remastered edition that you bring to PC after the fact.

Some enthusiasts might end up buying all versions.

As I've been saying for the past few years now, 9th-gen really feels like this might be the first console generation where I don't end up with a console,

Same here. My first console was a PS2 Slim, as that was the first I could afford. Which I sold long before I eventually got a PS3 Slim with a Move controller. My last console was a PS4 Pro that I got during the 2017 holidays. Sold that in 2022, just before Christmas it fetched a good sum, I almost got the original buying price back 5 years later, which is crazy.

If not for the chip shortage / scalpers I'd probably have ended up with a PS5, but now I'm glad that I couldn't get one. As I don't even want it anymore.

 

[DrezKill]

My last console was a PS4 Pro that I got during the 2017 holidays. Sold that in 2022, just before Christmas it fetched a good sum, I almost got the original buying price back 5 years later, which is crazy.

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!