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Former PlayStation boss says games are "seeing a collapse in creativity" as publishers spend more time asking "what's your monetization scheme?" | Shawn Layden thinks publishers should spent a little less time chasing Fortnite.

Shawn Layden thinks publishers should spent a little less time chasing Fortnite

Former Sony Interactive Entertainment chairman Shawn Layden, aka PlayStation's previous boss, reckons that gaming's "collapse in creativity" is due to ballooning budgets and risk-averse publishers. Speaking to Raw Fury's co-founder Gordon Van Dyke at Gamescom Asia, in a panel transcribed by Games Industry, Shawn Layden looks back at his own three-decade tenure at the console juggernaut where he apparently spent "a lot more time looking at games" without asking business-hatted questions like "'what's your monetization scheme,' or 'what's your recurrent revenue plan', or 'what's your subscription formula?'" The platform holder used to publish mammoth hits like Uncharted 4 alongside leaner, out-of-the-box gems like The Last Guardian or Fat Princess Adventures, which just doesn't happen anymore outside of Astro Bot, bless his chibi soul.

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