#184 - Shawn Layden Interview (Former CEO & Chairman of Playstation & SIEA)

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