Shawn Layden left Sony over focus on games-as-services

Shawn Layden left his post as head of PlayStation studios in 2019 — at the time, some media outlets cited disagreements with other top managers as the reason. Now, Layden has not only confirmed the information, but also revealed the nature of such disagreements — Sony’s change of focus to games-as-services.

Layden said that he wanted to continue the existing single-player PlayStation series — such as The Last of Us, God of War, and Spider-Man. According to the former head, he lacked the “vision and energy” to create a successful development strategy around service games.

The most successful game-as-service in Sony’s portfolio is Helldivers 2. The company also made its mark with the resoundingly failed Concord shooter, which was closed just a few days after its launch. As a result of the project’s failure, the company decided to cancel several service games in its universes. Sony’s next game-as-service should be Marathon from Bungie.