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GameDaily.biz: Shawn Layden departs Sony amid restructuring confusion and potential power struggle. Third party source: "We're getting nervous."
- Thread starter Mpl90
- Start date
He's been at playstation for a long ass time now and I'm sure he knows fully well what kind of games the audience wants. I wouldn't worry about that.
And I doubt he's the one overseeing projects within WWS. He probably has a hand in studio management/aquisitions, but not individual titles. WWS will be just fine under Ryan.
sorry but i'd rather believe era posters who assure me this is nothing and everything is perfectly fine.
exactly. it isn't NOTHING, there has to be some stuff going on and a few people's insistence on shutting down conversation around it is frankly, weird.
They spend a long time on market with no iterations compared to other devices, so don't wanna let the competition one up you on specs for 5+ years.
There are power struggles in companies all the time, especially when multiple divisions consolidate. You end up with overlap and middle management left without clear responsibilities and direction.
This is just a symptom of the changes that happened last year but it'll blow over and correct itself in time.
This is just a symptom of the changes that happened last year but it'll blow over and correct itself in time.
That could easily be corporate messaging agreed above Ryan at the time. I say a lot of things to customers in my job, but I'm mostly relaying the company messaging, after all I'm representing them and not myself in that situation.
Interesting, thanks for the insight.
And Layden was the one saying developers were to blame for the lack of crossplay.
Same strategy, different excuses.
Both can be true.
Developers might be very happy with the systems technically.
Publishers might be anxious to see business terms for the new platform - and it's possible finalising terms has been delayed on Sony's end because of exec-level strategy debates/disagreements.
Or it's possible in a restructure that account managers have been switched around, responsibilities shifted, and while that transition goes on, those points of contact are less communicative than normal.
There could be many other variations on the above, that might make one side of things happy while another is nervous. However I would say that in both the above scenarios, at least, those are things that can be remedied quickly once decisions are made and/or teams are put in order.
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Tying into Layden's departure, it could be related to above if he was on the losing end of an internal debate on direction, or felt he wasn't being heard, even if not directly linked to restructuring. [I'd venture to say it's happened before - at least I got that suggestion when Phil Harrison left, that partially at least, he felt he wasn't being heard in relation to breaking out with new interfaces for casual users etc.]
You said there are no sources. You were wrong. Please stop dragging interesting trade reporting into silly fanboy wars
"Where there is smoke, there is fire" but it seems that with this apparently being a fire, people pretend to not even see smoke. "This is fine"
I don't think that Sony is in trouble or PS5 or whatever games their studios are working on but there is definitely something happening internally at Sony, like some people already have said.
I don't think that Sony is in trouble or PS5 or whatever games their studios are working on but there is definitely something happening internally at Sony, like some people already have said.
yep. i'm not saying there's anything too serious going on or that there should be any doom and gloom, but to pretend like this exit was ordinary and how it normally happens is just naive. i'm just curious to find out more, and considering his position i think most others would be curious to know more about the circumstances as well.
It's going to vary from role to role. Sony didn't name a successor to Boyes because they essentially scrapped the entire initiative that Boyes was working on. Pub Fund is no more, there's been little to no partnerships with Indies in the last few years, his third party production team has been radio silent since he left, etc. In contrast, Sony has to have someone run WWS since that's their most successful arm within SIE. Maybe Shuhei gets elevated to that position or they'll bring someone else in, but either way there will be a replacement eventually. This is looking more and more like an abrupt departure for Layden. So I'm not surprised Sony didn't have someone already groomed to be his successor.
So we got more people say there is some stuff going on inside Sony right now. Interesting indeed
because it implies things aren't great at Sony. Can't have that.
They still needed somebody for 3rd party and they still have a team. They even searched after a replacement for Boyes with job postings. People leaving and having no replacements happens. And regarding Shawn's replacement. Maybe Michael Denny, maybe Scott Rhode, maybe Hermen Hulst. Or maybe they simply won't have this position anymore and Shu as the president of SIE WWS is "enough".
Truth is if we go by this gen sometimes pubs\companies have no idea how thing are going to go or can reading the market wrong and worry .
Consoles selling good now but i think some people forget how the industry was before this start .
Where mobile and F2P games were suppose to take over even on consoles and the industry though they were not going to sell well.
A new gen always bring worries in some way or the other .
For me it's the devs being nervous on the secrecy of next gen. I thought they said devkits went out but I guess only a select group has them right now?
For the record I DON'T think Shawn just randomly decided to leave Sony. The article posted still reads as speculative but there's definitely a reason why he left. Like Zhuge said I'm just waiting for something more concrete which should be coming eventually.
I literally said the opposite. Please stop spouting fanboy bs here. Stop quoting me as well.
I wonder if medium/small 3rd party devs from Japan having to send their games to US Playstation for certification (with english documentation only) instead of the Japanese Playstation HQ was the first simptom of the struggle.
The timeline seems to fit if I remember correctly.
The timeline seems to fit if I remember correctly.
Me too! In Toronto. Couldn't agree more, love the new direction (though I still love his old stuff as well!)
Curious about this as well, because i don't get it. Is a power change, yes. But the dev is concerned that it maybe will delay the dev-kits even further? If thats the case, yeah is bad because the devs needs time to know the console and optimize for it
Yoshida is what Sony needs TBH. He's the man. Ryan strikes me as the type of dude locking up COD multiplayer modes for exclusivity. I could be wrong, just the vibe.
I have to echo the same sentiments. I don't think this struggle will have a dramatic effect in the end, but something is definitely off. I read the article with a grain of salt for sure, but I doubt anyone is going to publicly announce what's happening, so I don't want to immediately write off everything
Yeah, there has been talk of Sony globalising and aligning everything which kind of matches up with that stuff.
reminds of the time where fans were calling the 3 simultaneously released reports about quantic dream fake news and calling into question the credibility of the writers and publishers of those articles.
i think it would help if people stopped being so godamn vague and leaving stuff up to interpretation where people run both ways with it
There's concern and worry and denial over the concern. I guess that's it in a nutshell
Nah I get that vibe too. I feel Ryan would be nuts enough to try to acquire Rockstar or something, Yoshida is like a teddy bear lol
Well that is very interesting .
Wonder if this will have big effect next gen in terms of Sony direction or there direction is what cause this .
Along with the changes they doing .
If the leaks about the PS5 are correct then devs won't need actual devkits until next year, giving rough specs would be enough at this time. So it makes sense that some bigger devs get prioritized for earlier kits.
Expect a much smoother transition this time than last time.
There is no need for concern, everything will be fine and dandy once Sid Shuman is appointed new Chairman of SIE.
He will show us the way.
Seriously though, I hope it's nothing major.
He will show us the way.
Seriously though, I hope it's nothing major.
Now I'm worried. Is Playstation planning on purging more people? Is it the lack of communication? How will this affect first party?