Former PlayStation boss says games are "seeing a collapse in creativity" as publishers spend more time asking "what's your monetization scheme?"
Shawn L✱ayden thinks publishers should spent a little les♊s time chasing Fortnite

Former 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Sony Interactive Entertainment chairman Shawn Layden, aka PlayStation's p⛎revious boss, reckons that gaming's "collapse in creativity" is due to ballooning budgets an෴d risk-averse publishers.
Speaking to Raw Fury's co-founder Gordon Van Dyke at Gamescom Asia, in a panel transcribed by , Shawn Layden looks back at his own three-decade tenure at the con🐟sole 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?'"
"We asked the simple question: is it fun? Are we having a good time? If you said yes to those questions, you'd usually get a green light," Layden continues. "You didn't worry so much about🐟 the end piece, for better or for worse. Of course, back then, you didn't make a game for millions [of] dollars. So your risk tolerance was fairly high."
Layden explained that part of this sweeping change comes from ballooning AAA game budgets, which can dip into "triple-digit millions" nowadays. PlayStation itse♔lf spent over $200 million each making Horizon: Forbidden West and The Last of Us Part 🌳2 - not to mention the money that might have gone into marketing. So, publishers are looking for more bulletproof money-mꦆakers.
"You're [looking] at sequels, you're looking at copycats," Layden says, "because the finance guys who draw the line say, 'Well, if Fortnite made this much money in this amount of time, my Fortnite knockoff can make this in that amount of time.' We're seeing a collapse 🍬of creativity in games today 🐟[with] studio consolidation and the high cost of production."
The PlayStation veteran isn't just plugging his ears and ignoring the dozens of great games that release every other week, however. He acknowledged that quality indies are carrying the torch but lamented that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:everything between your GTAs and your Balatros has mostly disappear💫ed. THQ and the AA space used to fill out that void and publish "lower budget, but super creative" games, but the industry is now littered with ei✃ther indie games or blockbusters that could bankrupt a company if it doesn't sell a gazillion copies.
It's a trend that's evident if you look at in recent years. The platform holder used to publish mammothꦗ 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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AAA gaming might be in a rut, but there's no shortage of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming indie games that you should definitely keep an eye on.
Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, th🧸rowback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.