• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden will be departing SIE

Tesseract

Tesseract

Banned
giphy.gif
 
S

Smaller than Atom

Member
I'm gonna go with this too. The timing might be right to do it now, but he has done a great job with ps4 and I'm surprised to see him going.

Hope no ps5 issues.
 
trikster40

trikster40

Member
Perrott said:
He did a really good job at E3 2016, but the following years the format of the show played against him.
Click to expand...

True, he seemed to stiffen up after that. E3 2018 format was the worst. Hoping they’ll be back for 2020, I didn’t even pay attention to E3 this year. Wonder who’ll replace him, and if they’ll make them the de facto presence at stage shows?
 
FF:Enhanced_Reality

FF:Enhanced_Reality

Member
Whatever the circumstances, the reception to the last State of Play was that it was a waste of time for a TLoU2 trailer and perhaps this past year or two it's been going against Layden. No PSX when it was helping drive sales numbers, no E3 when they had every opportunity to curb stomp Microsoft. Communication poor. Business decisions, poor. These past two years, sales aside, the buzz has not been playstation. I also wonder how much a part he played in the Insomniac acquisition and if anything has changed there.
 
Last edited:
Xaero Gravity

Xaero Gravity

NEXT LEVEL lame™
He seemed like a pretty cool guy in interviews, but I was never a fan of his stage presence. Can't blame him though, it's very hard to look and feel natural on a big stage, doubt I could do any better.
 
Perrott

Perrott

Member
FF:Enhanced_Reality said:
Whatever the circumstances, the reception to the last State of Play was that it was a waste of time for a TLoU2 trailer and perhaps this past year or two it's been going against Layden. No PSX when it was helping drive sales numbers, no E3 when they had every opportunity to curb stomp Microsoft. Communication poor. Business decisions, poor. These past two years, sales aside, the buzz has not been playstation. I also wonder how much a part he played in the Insomniac acquisition and if anything has changed there.
Click to expand...
And also the backlash that the PS brand received after his first statements about Fortnite cross-play, that awful PSX17 with him talking to the devs on a couch and the chaotic E3 2018 press conference.
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
Layden was good and I liked him but im happy he's gone because he's been outspoken in regards to not liking live trade shows such as E3 (which I love) and the entire presentation for E3 2018 and PSX 2017 was horrible. It will be interesting to see who replaces him for next generation.
 
DunDunDunpachi

DunDunDunpachi

Banned
Woah, wonder who will replace him. I feel mixed about his leadership: he helped push the Playstation brand with indies, and then he dumped indies once the PS4 became the de facto platform for porting stuff.

Please get some brainiac engineer to be in charge again. The game industry needs more guys like Ken Kutaragi and Satoru Iwata at the helm of these gaming *ahem* brands.

EDIT: weird typo.
 
Last edited:
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Huh... seems fast. Wonder how is going to replace him.
 
jakinov

jakinov

Member
Bryank75 said:
Pretty shocking, wonder why?

I liked the guy but it would be amazing if Jack came back or management reverted to Japan. Shu would be ideal.
Click to expand...
As consoles today are very system software and services heavy. I think it’s better to try to keep it closer to the US. Since that’s what they are great at. Their games division is lead by Shu. So he has the power still to let those creative Japanese games exist.

FF:Enhanced_Reality said:
Whatever the circumstances, the reception to the last State of Play was that it was a waste of time for a TLoU2 trailer and perhaps this past year or two it's been going against Layden. No PSX when it was helping drive sales numbers, no E3 when they had every opportunity to curb stomp Microsoft. Communication poor. Business decisions, poor. These past two years, sales aside, the buzz has not been playstation. I also wonder how much a part he played in the Insomniac acquisition and if anything has changed there.
Click to expand...
I don’t think it’s proven that PSX leads to strong software sales or that anything bad is happening due to a lack of E3 or PSX. Vast majority of PS money comes from third party software sales; and not doing some events isn’t going to decrease those sales. From their publishing side they are doing better than ever with 3 releases in the last couple years selling significantly better than any first party game ever before.
 
wipeout364

wipeout364

Member
He always left me cold. Can't really explain it, like there was an insincerity that was underlying everything. It's like he liked the games not the players? Anyway not happy to see him stay or go pretty indifferent honestly, but Sony could do better or worse so they need to be careful who they choose.
 
Fbh

Fbh

Member
I never really liked his on stage presence, he's bad at hiding that he doesn't really care about the stuff he is talking about. And I wonder how involved he was in Sony going hard on censorship to please the woke crowd.

Aside from that I guess he did fine but I can't say I'm sad to see him go.
Let's see who gets to replace him.
 
Javthusiast

Javthusiast

Banned
They gonna put some woke person in charge who, after sony already went into censoring games even after ratings boards gave their ratings, is gonna establish even tastier soy based rules on playstation games going forward.

Joke aside, I hope they put someone from sony japans side in the leadership role with a greater focus on more japanese games, even though japan already has stepped up well this generation, and not a person from woke sony california.
 
demigod

demigod

Member
Whoever is in charge of the censorship needs to go. TAKE THEM WITH YOU SHAWN!!! Honestly I liked the guy. Haters gonna hate.
 
Northeastmonk

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Fbh said:
I never really liked his on stage presence, he's bad at hiding that he doesn't really care about the stuff he is talking about. And I wonder how involved he was in Sony going hard on censorship to please the woke crowd.

Aside from that I guess he did fine but I can't say I'm sad to see him go.
Let's see who gets to replace him.
Click to expand...

At first, it felt like you could sense his pay grade in his voice. Over time I liked listening to him. I don’t have anything really bad to say about him.

But overall, where the hell is everyone going? It seems like everyone has left PlayStation Nation and Sony is kicking ass. Around the time Bloodborne and MGSV came out, there seemed to be a very strong bond with the top executives at Sony.

It raises the question, do brands need faces to them anymore? I know gaming development faces has caused more problems than it has helped the industry. Anytime you start getting attached to figure head, you feel like they should have a halo around their head and walk on water.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Poll
Does Shawn Layden fundamentally not understand Live Service? Or is it Men_In_Boxes?
2 3
112
6K
diffusionx replied
Shawn Layden: When your costs for a game exceed $200 million, exclusivity is your Achilles’ heel
2 3 4
173
10K
mckmas8808 replied
CNBC — Can The Sony PlayStation Remain The Top-Selling Gaming Console?
4 5 6 7 8
357
18K
Woopah replied
Midori: More PlayStation Studios Titles are being revealed at Summer Game Fest
Rumor 2
78
3K
Bartski replied
SIE Buying Bungie Was A Mistake
Opinion Drama 2 3 4
185
11K
Salty Popsicle replied
Top Bottom