Ex-PlayStation Boss Shawn Layden Says ‘Exclusives Will Always Be Important’

Speaking on What’s Up PlayStation, Shawn Layden, the former CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment and chairman of Worldwide Studios, has stated his belief that exclusives still play an important role for console manufacturers in the current market.

[LG_Fox_Brazil]

Exclusives are what made the industry into the juggernaut that it is today. It was the exclusivity that made people in the west go back to have interest in the consoles back when the NES and the Master System arrived here after the crash of 1983

[StormSnooper]

MS wants to infect everyone w their mediocrity.

[Lightning77]

Weird unprovoked comment. Fooled me because Sea Of Thieves seems to be the most pre-ordered game on PS.

Blade? Don't get me started with that game especially on Twitter how excited PS fans were about that game.

[Tedakin]

SOT is the top pre-ordered game right now on PSN over all your upcoming exclusives. What's that tell you?

[Reaper22_]

Say what you want but Microsoft has done some good things for the industry as far as innovation goes. They've got some good games and I like how they incorporate features like quick resume into their console. It's hard to imagine not having that one on their next console.

[Hofstaderman]

@ Lightning and @Tedkin could be that those Seas preorders of Sea of Thieves is just playstation players way of sticking it to Phil. When MS sees those numbers dont you think they will release more of their games on PS like Blade, Gears, Halo etc?
You don't see PS exclusives going to XBOX. Seas preorders are hastening MS to third party publisher.
Alot of former 360 owners jumped ship with the PS4, a great deal of those preorders also come from this grouping.

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

Wtf does MS have to do with what Sony does? I hope you NEVER become a business owner because you seem to think that Sony gives a damn about you. That mediocrity you speak of made MS one of the richest companies on the planet so I’m not sure what you mean by that. Sony has already put all of their major exclusives on PC so what makes you think they won’t put their exclusives elsewhere for a profit? Business is about making money and fooling people like you into thinking these companies care about you and it works.

[Lightning77]

@hof "When MS sees those numbers dont you think they will release more of their
games on PS like Blade, Gears, Halo etc?"

AAA SYSTEM sellers goin over? Those games that SELL systems. Yeah no not a chance. That's makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Because... SYSTEM SELLERS.

LS and AA yeah those make it over eventually.

"You don't see PS exclusives going to XBOX."

PS also doesn't have many AA games and no LS games yet except HD2 which is 3rd party. You think they'll put out their SYSTEM sellers on Xbox? What would they do that?

[fr0sty]

You speak of being smart about business, and then fail to see that the reason why Sony is not releasing their games on Xbox is because it gives people a reason to buy more PlayStations, unlike Xbox which can't sell their systems even with exclusives, because they're games just aren't good enough to move systems like PS5 can, Sony actually gains an advantage by having exclusive games, at least in the consoles space. This is why they are not going to be releasing their gains on competing consoles, PC on the other hand, being that it is not a directly competing market, and most PC gamers also own consoles, it is profitable for them to release their games there, after a period of time.

[Cacabunga]

Couldn’t have been said better

[S2Killinit]

MS has been pushing an agenda that exclusives are no good. Why? Because they prefer to make gaming about services and add-ons. This is EXACTLY why they never bothered investing in their own studios to make proper quality games and fell behind in that department. Why they dont invest in VR, cant make quality story games, why they keep pushing the idea that exclusives are not needed. In MS’s future, gaming quality is not where the competition is. They want backroom dealings to decide where gamers play. The writing was on the wall, but some did not want to see it. Now they are slowly roasting in that pan and get upset when someone correctly points out that MS would LOVE less competition/mediocrity to be the order of things.

[-Foxtrot]

The hilarious part is I wanted and got an Xbox back in the day for Halo Combat Evolved

That exclusive game pushed me to get one

[Reaper22_]

"Exclusives are what made the industry into the juggernaut that it is today"

That's not exactly true. Exclusives are definitely an important part of the industry, however they still only represent a small fraction of it. 3rd party is still and most likely will remain
the backbone of it. We need both but I believe the industry would not be close to what it is now without the 3rd party publishers.

[SeTTriP]

Think you kinda missed his point

[M3talDiamond]

I agree with him competition is healthy for the industry. Bring back Shawn Layden he was one of Sony's best CEO's imo

[darthv72]

Exclusives are usually what grabs a persons attention. To get them to notice the platform. The ones that got me to notice the PS1 were Philosoma and Jumping Flash. The later would make for a great VR title if they were to reboot it.

[SegaSaturn669]

Playstation's exclusive, Gravity Rush, is very important. This man knows what he's talking about.

[purple101]

yeaha, il deffo buy the remastered gravity rush2, announcement in may,- we think. (we pray)
would post it but it is, just a rumour at this point, search google for gravity rush 2, click on news, its everywhere.

n4g a little behind in that respect.

[jznrpg]

Great game! I still have my Vita copy and PS4 copy as well but I liked it on Vita better actually.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

If only we could get a third game, they clearly left it open for a sequel.

[SyntheticForm]

Offering what someone else doesn't will always be important; especially if the offerings are of quality. This is basic stuff that everyone knows.

[fxa5209]

It is basic for everyone except Jim Rayan.. I am glad that he is gone.

[jznrpg]

Exclusives drive competition. The problem is one company thought they could buy their way to being competitive and it worked for a little while but wasn’t sustainable. Thankfully Sony and Nintendo will keep making exclusive games.

[NotoriousWhiz]

Did it work for a little while? I don't think it moved the needle at all.

[Skuletor]

The God of War series is what made me go from the PS2 to the PS3. Then games like Uncharted, Killzone 2, Infamous, Resistance and more were enough to make me want to go from the PS3 to the 4. I'm looking forward to seeing what Sony's first party studios have in store for us the rest of this gen.

[StormSnooper]

Hell yeah.

[Hereandthere]

Long live exclusives!

[Inverno]

Sure, when it comes to deciding which console to get at the beginning of the gen maybe but at this point with all but Demon Souls on PC what's the actual point of consoles? How many people will be willing to buy yet another 500 dollar console next Gen knowing those "exclusives" will come to PC's? The excuse of PC's being expensive can't be used anymore when that same PC you build or buy today will most likely be able to play all the games through what remains of this gen and most of what will come next gen. All you've got is blind loyalty to a brand that is putting your precious "exclusives" on another platform to be enjoyed by those who aren't swimming in the fanboy cool aid.

[P_Bomb]

I don’t want to wait 2-4 years longer to play games I can play now. I platinumed Ghost of Tsushima FOUR years ago ffs. I also have libraries, friends, shit builds up. 🤔

[Inverno]

Yea sure I too have a library of games, some that unfortunately also stuck on PS3, but I still have my PS3 and 4, i don't need a PS5 to play them.

[raWfodog]

I'll pose a simple, relevant scenario to your question "what's the point of consoles?" Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade are two anticipated PS5 titles that, at this time, do not have publicly-released plans to launch on PC. So if someone wanted to really play those games right now and did not yet have a PS5, they would need to buy one to play them. That is what a console manufacturer is going for. I've bought the original Xbox to play Halo, I bought a 360 to play Gears of War, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, and I've bought PS and Nintendo consoles to play the unique games that they offered at the time. For many, it's not about 'blind loyalty' or silly fanboy flame wars, it's just about getting the console to play the games that you aren't able to play anywhere else. If it releases on another console or PC down the line, I'm not concerned with that. It doesn't take away the fun experiences that I had when I originally played those games, at least for me it doesn't.

[Inverno]

You're talking about older generations though, many of those games never, and still probably never will, made their way to PC, so it makes a lot of sense to have owned those systems. I'm speaking specifically about current Gen and beyond. As an informed consumer, and many of us are on this site, seeing as these current gen games have made their way to PC how long will most of us continue to justify purchasing a system specifically for those games? I've mostly stepped away from purchasing a PS5 because I have waited for a PRO model but now that most of the current Gen games that I've wanted are already on PC i don't see the point of purchasing 1.

[raWfodog]

In my example to you, I used two PS5 games coming out. Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade. Nothing 'older generation' about those games. Sure you can wait and maybe eventually get news about those coming out on PC. But for those who don't want to wait for a 'maybe PC' date, how will they get to play those games if they don't purchase a PS5? If YOU aren't interested in those games, that's cool. But guaranteed there will be plenty of others who want to play them. And if you don't think there will be other future exclusive PS5 games besides these two, just wait and see.

[8bitAssassin]

Uses blind loyalty = invalid. Sorry to say p.c will always play second fiddle. Console sell games to a higher degree. Steam is not what's being marketed when publishers need that advertised on commercials, YouTube, social media adds. You strict p.c people don't get it and that's why you can only see what's in front of you. People want to play games at launch. Not 6 months to 4-5 years down the line. No Vanillaware games and any more are not on p.c.

The truth is most people don't care about upgrading a rig. People want physical media and when they get home. They're not worried if the random clown who's been sitting behind a keyboard all day. Is making their gaming experience better for them and not me.

[Inverno]

I'm not a strict PC gamer, i just haven't bought a PS5 yet and I'm not planning on it cause all it's games are already on PC. Also sales don't concern me, nor does it concern the average consumer cause we don't see that money in any way. You act as if PC doesn't have games coming out day one, only PS games don't come out day one and if SONY shifts to that and advertises it then people will move on to PCs just as easily. Cause it's as you say people wouldn't care.

[Good-Smurf]

Sorry, but I have high end gaming laptop and unfortunately they simply doesn't give me the same plug-in and playness of PS5 and the same game on PC simply didn't run as smooth as on PS5 then there's the problem of the darn thing gets hot and noisy while on PS5 it's whisper quiet.
And of course it's pretty expensive $3300 vs $500 and I still have to tinkering with it all the time to keep the game running smooth, no such problem on PS5.
And nope my laptop won't lasted 'till to next gen console came out the optimization on PC OS and hardware side are so trash that you need to brute force in stability by buying over inflated hardware every year or two.
Mine's a RTX 3080Ti laptop and it's already struggling in 2024.

[Inverno]

Bro you bought a laptop, no offense but gaming laptops are an absolute rip-off and won't ever be a replacement for neither consoles nor desktops.

[Charlieboy333]

@ Inverno Can your PC play games for 7 years at the same quality? No. You would you need to upgrade it to maintain the level of graphical fidelity as games advance. What happens in a console generation? The games improve EVEN MORE as the generation goes on with all the best looking and most impressive games coming out towards the end of the 7 years, as developers learn to push the hardware to the max. So for $500 you get a console that can run everything for 7 years as intended and improves over time. With PC that is not the case.....it is a machine that can play games as one of it's functions. Console's only function IS to play games.

[Skuletor]

Astro's Playroom
Demon's Souls (2020)
Destruction AllStars
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (probably timed)
Marvel's Wolverine
Quantum Error
Rise of the Ronin
Silent Hill: The Short Message
Spider-Man 2 (2023)
Stellar Blade

There's more than that and definitely more than just the Demon's Souls remake right now.

[Inverno]

Spiderman 2 and Wolverine have PC versions, FF7 is already on PC and part 2 is a given. Silent Hill? Seriously? Rise of Ronin will make its way to PC, Quantum Error is first off mediocre and already coming to PC…Destruction Allstars is irrelevant, Astro's Playroom is essentially a PS5 tech demo and if they haven't come out with another game most likely they won't.

[Skuletor]

Not everyone wants to play the waiting game

[CrimsonWing69]

I don’t understand at what point everyone began hating on exclusives. Nobody cried about them back in the day.

[8bitAssassin]

Cause they weren't getting them. All they did was hype up some weak ass First Person Shooters type game. Sony should have never done it. I'm glad Nintendo hasn't.

People who say there shouldn't be exclusives are stupid.

[Lightning77]

The growing gen z based gamers don't see the point of exclusives or exclusives is archaic concept. They have a tendency to play LS and mobile stuff mp centric games. They also play less genres overall. Compared to Millennial and X gen.

Makes sense. They have way more access to games than ever before. They're the definition of going where their friends go. Back then there was less games compared today. They took more risks back then and commanded your attention. Golden Eye on n64 get togethers playing Spyro and Crash with a friend. Halo LAN parties on Xbox. Countless top of the Line PS2 games my goodness.

Gen Z will never know. They don't understand exclusives.

[Charlieboy333]

Gen Z doesn't know much about anything, even though they have much easier access to any kind of information than anyone ever did before. Yet they are the dumbest and most clueless. Weird.

[Abnor_Mal]

Seeing other publications headlines for this story seemingly twisting his words for clickbait.

https://www.ign.com/article...

https://gamerant.com/playst...

https://www.google.com/url?... https://kotaku.com/sony-pla...

https://www.google.com/url?... https://www.levelup.com/en/...

[LikAChicken]

The source is from a non neutral gaming site though and its a straight up paragraph with the source being a video. The other publications aren't twisting anything. He did say in the video that multiplayer games like Helldivers highlight how mutiple platforms is essentially cracking open a funnel. For single player games with large budgets it also makes sense to have a multiple platform strategy.

“For single-player games it’s not the same exigency,” he said. “But if you’re spending $250 million, you want to be able to sell it to as many people as possible, even if it’s just 10% more.”

[Abnor_Mal]

I said the headlines are clickbait by creating titles that “seemingly “ twist his words. I never said the articles themselves nor did I reference a video, just what the titles appear to be saying to generate clicks.

[isarai]

There's no point in a product that doesn't offer something the competition does not.

[jwillj2k4]

Super FX chip games got my attention
Halo 1 got my attention
Sonic adventures got my attention
Daytona Usa got my attention
PS3 tech demo got my attention
Etc

The trillion dollar baby lost its fight and is now trying to gaslight the entire gaming industry that the fight should have never happened in the first place.

[Ironmike]

Like u said a trillion dollar company put their product everywhere yeah they proper lost the fight lol

[Lightning77]

Yet here we have some say exclusives are
somehow "anti consumer" what sorta dumb stupid logic is that? With out exclusives Nintendo would cease to exist, Sega consoles would never happened and PS would not be around. The video game crash in the West would remain crashed with out Mario and Nintendo. There would be no way to differentiate yourself from other consoles. Mario, Sonic, Crash multiplat would be ok for a short time. But do you think, 1 consoles would sell the way they did? 2 do you think that sorta quality in games could be met constantly? No it wouldn't. Stifle in growth and inspiration if everything went everywhere. In fact consoles would just float in the void, coming and going, shorter life cycles with a few real bangers that would sell the consoles but there would be short term inspiration from creators until they move on to something else. Those AAA sell consoles/platform. Always has and always will AA drives, engagement and sustainability.

Exclusives are the life blood of the consoles period.

[TheColbertinator]

Nintendo knows this. They don't consider bringing Zelda, Mario, Super Smash Bros, Fire Emblem or Donkey Kong to Sony and Microsoft consoles at all.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Or PC, I had to buy a Switch to enjoy all it's exclusives, and they're high quality ones that I can't play anywhere else.

[anast]

Now that they got Xbox under boot, they can dictate how the exclusive stuff plays out.

[ROCKY28]

where my new WipEout !!!!

[purple101]

hehe, I, playing wipeout omega collection at the moment,

I must say, I was always not very good at it, as a kid, you know,

the tv was square, the input lag was enormous, your really had to learn the tracks, (as with nay racing game) but I was juts not good, now replaying some of there tracks on a big tv, with game mode on (less latency) in 4k, it really shines, the gameplay is just phenomenal., music also good - if ya know, you know

[ROCKY28]

100% - you absolutely need to learn the tracks to be king in this game..
I feel it is the best racing game ever created - most don't like it because of the difficult learning curve
but I think its best when hard as it forces you to learn every turn and short cut...

I would love a remaster of XL & 3

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

Exclusives are the bread and butter of any console. It’s what makes you pick one side over another. I would hate to live in a world where all the games are on every console. I enjoy the competitive nature of the gaming market and without exclusives I think that would fade away. Unfortunately we are definitely heading to a gaming world where exclusives no longer a thing. MS has shown that they are willing to kick all of their loyal fans to the curb just to get some of those Sony dollars and Sony has shown they will kick their fans just to get some of that PC money. Kids that are just now being born will never get to experience what gaming was really like because the world will be completely different by then…kinda sad when you think about it

[Lightning77]

I dunno about kicking their fans that's a bit dramatic. As I said before LS life blood is multiplatform full stop. AA is for sustainability and engagement. As far as "console warring" is concerned who's beatin their chest about a LS game? Or AA games anymore? I guess I can somewhat understand AA but LS? Lol hardly anything to brag about.

[Vipre77]

I agree with his point here, but overall I find this guy possibly the least likeable face of SIE that they've put on a stage in front of gamers. Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton were so much better. Jack was especially good at interviews and presenting stuff on stage. And let's not forget fictional VP of Everything Kevin Butler. That guy was money. If Sony's marketing team had half a brain, they'd throw some money at that guy again and repair that bridge they burned with him. I want more Kevin Butler ads.

[Elda]

Exclusives is what differentiates gaming consoles.

[Demetrius]

True that 💪🏾
😌 I agree when you think about how long God of War been around it really do make ya appreciate Sony for allowing their studios to have creative freedom unlike other mfs who forced devs to make fortnite and call of duty online only clones and copy fromsoftwares fight mechanics lol

[Profchaos]

Exclusives are exciting for all consoles i didn't buy a switch because I love downgraded games like mortal Kombat one it was for the hundreds of hours I've spent exploring Hyrule or defeating Bowser in Mario.

I didn't buy a PlayStation just to play call of duty and my last Xbox console was the Xbox one because it's early years had games that you still can't play on PC like halo 5 the main reason I brought a Xbox.

Why don't I buy Xbox series consoles because the games are on PC.

Simple as that.

The narrative that game development costs to much is true so it should mean that we see more times exclusives from PlayStation and Xbox however I really hope they continue to give us a reason to buy their systems otherwise I guess it'll be a PC over a next gen ps or xbox

[neomahi]

DARN RIGHT!! They move the hardware we want. They support the services we want and oppose the services we don't want. The gaming industry seems to look at Nintendo for what to do, even though Nintendos biggest success was the Wii that hasn't seen such success since the NES and barely defeating the Sega Genesis by a small number, Sega having had a REALLY GOOD RUN! But, if Nintendo whose total dependence is on videogames and hardware having their hands on nothing else STILL has exclusive games STILL exclusive to their hardware and not even on a PC yet, then what does Sony have to worry about? Their hardware is outselling Xbox 3:1. The only reason Xbox went Play Anywhere is because they went up S*** Creek and got stuck, that's it. If they would have been number 1 or even number 2 out of the gate with Xbox One, we wouldn't be seeing this now. It's because they've completely lost consumer trust and their Bill Gates pride won't allow them to settle for that, they're trying to save themselves from the blunder and can't admit they just don't know the business and put all the wrong people in all the wrong positions and hire all the wrong people to dip into a market they don't understand.

FINALLY! Just because Xbox have chosen to go the route theyve gone doesn't mean they're blazing a new trail and that their revolutionary and Nintendo and PlayStation need to follow suit, because Xbox is only in this position trying to pick up the pieces because they jacked up and continued to jack up trying to pick gamers pockets. If Nintendo isn't doing it, it must not be that big of a concern.

One final example. When Xbox 360 "got serious" and "wanted to play with the big boys" they had no real clout or relationship with any devs so they bought them off, with their deep pockets, rather than establishing relationships from the ground up like Sony, Nintendo, and even SEGA had to do, Xbox chose the easy way out by buying and implementing paid DLC. Paid DLC, microtransactions, loot boxes, game packs, all the products of Xbox and their business models. "Pick the consumer pockets clean". Doesn't matter we're in trying times, the wealthy need to get more wealthy and Electronic Arts was their biggest advocate. These days, how does Sony treat their customers? Ghost of Tsushima Legends tore a page from the ol PS2 playbook. You bought our game, you support us, this is on us. Legends DLC was free as it should be because you bought that game. God of War Ragnarok Valhalla DLC, FREE DLC because you bought their game. The way it should be. Even Capcom decided to give it a go and follow suit with Resident Evil 4 VR, because you bought their game. At one time, games came complete on a disc and you unlocked content, Xbox got greedy and now they develop games and dissect them before they go gold to determine how much you'll pay for the rest AFTER you e already paid $100 for a digital deluxe version. That's Microsoft. They also buy Activision for $69 billion and transfer that savings to you...... Right? Yup

[DaniMacYo]

Xbox like. What are exclusives?

[Jingsing]

Exclusives are important which is why for the first time I won't be buying a PlayStation next generation but instead I'll buy an affordable PC. Why? Because I can get PC/Sony/MS games all in the one place. Ironically Sony and Microsoft are diluting themselves in the exclusives market and making the PC more cost effective. Can someone explain how not being a platform holder makes them more money? Especially a platform that has a lot of piracy and isn't willing to pay $70 per game.

[Ironmike]

I thought sony all bit confirmed they be releasing games earlier for pc don't know how much earlier but ur seeing a bigger influx of games appearing on pc than ever before but some have dome issues I can't fault sony diversing in to pc market they in it to make money good luck to them I still prefer my ps5vover pc any day because its simply easier to use

[Ironmike]

First party exclusives I agree with the big names that I understand it's when they blocking third party games of each other consoles idon't agree with

[contra157]

From console wars to exclusive

[HyperMoused]

MS needs to take note exclusives sells consoles sells subs sells software