Shawn Layden was former CEO of Playstation worldwide studios and former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment America. His career in Sony is legendary as a Japanese localizer that had a meteoric rise to be one of the head honchos of the whole company. #playstation #sony #ps5 SOCIAL MEDIA TWITTER -@SHAWNLAYDEN BLUESKY - @ shawnlayden.bsky.social TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 01:02 - Why Playstation Used Numbers For Each Console Iteration 03:26 - Being The Fix It Guy At Sony/What Motivates Shawn 05:45 - Building A Reputation 07:00 - Doing 18 Hour Days During The PSN Hack 09:00 - Why Sony Is So Good At Marketing 13:01 - How FOMO Is Used In Marketing 14:00 - Why Sony Now Releases 1st Party Games On PC/Initial Pushback 15:50 - Why Astro Bot Was Shawn’s 2024 GOTY 18:30 - Why The Japanese Are So Good At Game Design 21:57 - Western Games Are Too Big In Scope/Dev Costs Come From Salaries 23:05 - Why So Many Game Studios Are On The West Coast Of America/Environmental Costs 24:57 - Game Devs Commute Times Create Major Sunk Costs/Working From Home 28:30 - Shawn Pushed Realistic Graphics Well Acknowledging It’s Not Sustainable 30:52 - How Sony Prices Games & When To Drop The Price 33:40 - Concords Failure/Why Games As A Service Was Popular And No Longer Isnt 37:31 - Why The PS6 Won’t Be Discless 40:00 - Launching Handhelds Are Hard/Why The PS Vita Failed 43:00 - Sony Characters Won’t Appear In Super Smash Bros 44:20 - Why Playstation All-Stars Didn’t Sell Well 46:48 - Q+A - How Will The Market Of Fortnite/Roblox Players Change As They Get Older 49:28 - Q+A - Shawn’s Opinion On Microsoft’s Multiplatform Approach 51:22 - Nintendo Are Best Positioned To Navigate The “Diminishing Returns” Problem 54:18 - Q+A - What Games Did You Think Would Be Big Hits But Weren’t. 58:21 - You Learn More From Failures Than Successes 59:43 - Closing Comments
