"There comes a time when we all declare the war is over": Former PlayStation Studios boss Shawn Layden on the future of video game consoles

Comments

• tal@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  We’re losing the next generation to TikTok. The competition for gaming isn’t Xbox and Nintendo. It’s everything else in the freaking zeitgeist that can take your time away from your gaming activity.

  Round two: the television strikes back.

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  • omarfw@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This is only a problem for capitalist shareholders (aka the ultra wealthy) who need to extract more wealth from consumers than they did last quarter but they’re already at the limit of how much they can do so. Now the largest barrier is time and attention.

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  • TORFdot0@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That quote is just horribly disturbing to me. He’s basically letting the mask drop that their endgame isn’t to make great games, it’s to make you hopelessly addicted to screen time that you obsessively play and spend

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    • LiveLM@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Oh you should read the next part

      The pandemic gave us an unnatural pop for gaming, where we thought, ‘oh my god, gaming is the biggest thing in the world’. Yeah, when you’re locked down, it is the biggest thing in the world. But in a regular world scenario, you’ve got to combat against all the other distractions that are available to young people. And I’m afraid that we’re not facing that threat head on as an industry.

      Motherfuckers see unnatural conditions caused by a once-in-a-lifetime event, think they’re the hottest shit ever, and when the numbers come back to normal levels they see other forms of entertainment as a “threat” that should be “faced head on”.
      Lmao. How can an industry be so full of itself?

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  • LiveLM@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Does this sound stupid to anyone else?
    Like, the crowd you’re “losing” to TikTok is unlikely to even go out and buy a console either way, am I wrong?

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• slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  If you stopped doing exclusives then there wouldn’t be a “war”. Consumers can get the hardware they think will work for them and get to play everything.

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  • Korkki@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That is not how their business model works. The consoles themselves are sold almost at cost of production or at a loss. The money for Microsoft, Nintendo, Microsoft comes from those exclusives and live service subscriptions. They want to maximize the amount of their hardware in homes and then make the money on selling the thing that actually makes them useful.

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• Agent_Karyo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Growing costs of hardware components and relatively mild gen-on-gen improvements in visual quality are making the classical console business model (subsidized hardware used to drive game sales via exclusiveles) obsolete.

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  • Korkki@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    One major argument for consoles is still that there is a single unified platform that gives better bang-for-buck than PC of the same price, and that studios can dev and optimize their games on more easily.

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    • Agent_Karyo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That’s definitely true. But I would argue every additional “unit” of graphical improvement is becoming more and more expensive to the point where the relative benefits associated with a single unified platform are not as impactful as they once were.

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• Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  This is a really interesting article!

  I’m all for an end to exclusivities. Just let me enjoy whatever I want on whatever platform I want as long as it’s optimized enough.

  If Xbox people get Uncharted, I ain’t gonna cry as long as I get Gears of War for instance.

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• RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Then when will Sony stop paying studios to not port their game to platforms other than PlayStation, regardless of time gate? This has been Sony’s playbook since the beginning of their gaming venture, I don’t see them stopping any time soon.

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  • ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I do see them stopping soon. Those deals are benefiting basically no one anymore. Partners like Square Enix are doing way better by putting their games on PC without an exclusivity period. Sony’s not growing their console business over the previous generation, even when their competition has been destroyed. At some point it’s just money down the drain.

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