Former PlayStation Boss Shawn Layden Plans to Bring Back AA Games
He wants to fill the gap between indie and AAA games.
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Shawn Layden, former PlayStation boss, talked about the gaming industry and how unsustainable it has become to develop games because of the increase in prices and budgets.
It's not the first time Layden has said something about the matter; in 2024, he said that relying on "blockbusters" is a "death sentence". In the past, someone could pitch a game without talking about monetization and revenue. It was about whether the game was fun or not, but now that seems to be the least important thing.
This time, in an interview with Eurogamer, he said he is planning on bringing back double-A games.
"The current model incentivises or almost dictates that to get funding — certainly in the triple-digit million era — you better be a sequel or you better be based on something like Lord of the Rings, or you had better be 'it's just like Grand Theft Auto but...'. So we make all those kinds of games, we fund those kinds of games. But the quirky kind of stuff you saw on PS1 and PS2, we don't see so much," he said in the interview.
For Layden, it's important to fill the gap between indie games and AAA games, and what he wants to create is a "publishing concern", which could mean that he will invest in games that are in the AA category, giving them more opportunity to experiment and take risks with their projects, without aiming for a sequel or becoming a blockbuster.
Another aspect he mentioned is who the target audience will be. He wants games that people actually finish: "When the average gamer was between 16 and 24, you are time rich and money poor; but if you're between 28 and 32, you may not be money rich, but you're definitely time poor," he said.
He didn't fully explain what he will do or when we'll see any of that, but allowing developers and studios to create AA games without worrying about a huge budget could be a good thing for the industry.
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