Former Sony Interactive Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden thinks PlayStation was "lucky and happy to have survived" the PlayStation 3 (PS3) era.
Former Sony Interactive Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden thinks Sony was 'lucky and happy to have survived' the PlayStation 3 era
The company's third-generation console had disappointing sales after it hit the market in 2006 – reaching roughly 87.4 million units sold compared to the PlayStation 2's 160 million – and now Layden has admitted the gaming division was "lucky" to have made it through that generation and found its footing again with the PlayStation 4.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Layden – who was at the company from 1996 to 2019 – said: "PS3 was Sony's Icarus moment. We had PS1, PS2 ... and now we're building a supercomputer! And we're going to put Linux on it! And we're going to do all these sorts of things!
"We flew too close to the sun, and we were lucky and happy to have survived the experience, but it taught us a lot.
"And going to PS4, we learned things like: buy it, don't build it, if you can. You can manage the cost better. You can argue with vendors, get better deals instead of building your own thing."
The businessman, who now heads up Tencent Games, added the PlayStation 3's lacklustre reception and complicated development process had taught Sony to focus solely on the gaming experience for its predecessor, which ultimately allowed the console to outsell rival Microsoft's Xbox One.
Layden explained: "We also learned that the center of the machine has to be gaming. It's not about whether I can stream movies or play music. Can I order a pizza while I'm watching TV and play? No, just make it a game machine. Just make it the best game machine of all time.
"I think that's what really made the difference. When PS4 came out, it set us against what Xbox was trying to do. [Microsoft wanted to] build more of a multimedia experience, and we just wanted to build a kick-a** game machine."