Shawn Layden (ex-PlayStation): "Failing to preserve games is criminal"

When a former PlayStation executive sounds the alarm about the excesses of his own industry, it deserves to be heard. Shawn Layden, former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, has delivered a clear-eyed critique on two fronts: the consolidation of the sector and the preservation of games.

Consolidation, a threat to creativity

Layden criticises the race toward ever more expensive blockbusters, which stifles risk-taking and creativity. He warns against the wave of acquisitions: when a small studio is absorbed by a conglomerate, its creative independence, and therefore the diversity of the sector, is under threat. He also points to the arrival of the technology giants (Google, Netflix, Apple, Amazon) in video games as a possible "existential threat".

Preservation, a neglected duty

Layden considers the industry's negligence when it comes to preservation to be "criminal". Access to titles from previous generations, on current platforms, remains very limited. For him, preservation is not only a matter of culture: it is about allowing future generations to discover the works of the past, just as one can read a 19th-century novel or watch a film from the 1930s.

This testimony, coming from within, echoes the documented findings of the Video Game History Foundation: without a clear obligation, the video game heritage is fading away.

Sources: Push Square · Kotaku.