LogInThey "want a piece of that."
Image credit: Dean Drobot
Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has recently shared his concerns about the game industry, saying that non-endemic companies like Google, Netflix, and Amazon are threatening it.
"First, consolidation can be an enemy of creativity," he said at the GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit. "I also think rising costs in gaming are an existential threat to all of us. And the entry of non-endemics into the sector – otherwise known as the 'barbarians at the gate.'
"Right now we see all the big players going, 'Oh, gaming? It's bringing in billions of dollars a year? I want a piece of that' And so we have Google, Netflix, Apple and Amazon wanting to get piece and trying to disrupt out industry."
He brings up some examples from other areas, like how Apple "convinced everyone that 99 cents per song was a good idea" and Netflix took the movie business by storm. Layden wishes for these "outsiders" to stay away and let the game industry do what it does on its own.
"I'm hoping gaming will be the first industry where we disrupt ourselves," he said. "Where it doesn’t take a Google or an Amazon to completely flip the table. We should be smart enough to see these changes coming and prepare ourselves for that eventuality."
Then again, PlayStation and Xbox were introduced by non-endemic companies themselves. To this, Layden replied that Sony "knew enough that entertainment was its own beast" and "brought the entertainment piece in."
"PlayStation knew that we couldn't do what Sega and Nintendo did and [provide the bulk of the software], we didn't know enough how to make it. We had to be the third-party platform, so we had to get Namco, Square, EA, Activision. Those Sony Music guys are the ones that got Square to move Final Fantasy 7 off of Nintendo and onto PlayStation, probably the biggest sea change move."
What do you think about Layden's point? Will we get more benefits from outside corporations? Find the original article here and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.