Former PlayStation Boss Says Gaming Faces “Existential Threat”
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According to former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden, non-endemic companies like Netflix or Google are one of the biggest threats to the video game business today.
Layden spoke at a keynote on stage with GamesIndustry.biz head Christopher Dring at the website’s Investment Submit last week. Listing his top three concerns for the industry in the years ahead, he claimed that “consolidation can be an enemy of creativity,” and that “rising costs in gaming are an existential threat to all of us.” He then referred to non-endemic companies like Netflix, Google, Apple, and Amazon as “barbarians at the gate.”
Layden sees what happened to other entertainment spaces, like music and TV, as cautionary tales. The music industry was permanently altered by iTunes, for example. Netflix aided in destroying home video rental and changed consumers’ relationship to the cinema. He is hopeful that gaming will disrupt itself, rather than being changed by outside forces. He said, “Where it doesn’t take a Google or an Amazon to completely flip the table. We should be smart enough to see these changes coming and prepare ourselves for that eventuality.”
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