Former Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Shawn Layden said during the PS4 generation that making games exclusive to one platform is essentially a mistake now, as the cost of developing modern AAA games for PlayStation and Xbox is quickly exceeding $200 million.
Shaun Layden said in an interview that given the exorbitant development costs of modern AAA games, even 10% additional sales on a new platform becomes something necessary to make the business more sustainable:
“When a game costs more than $200 million, exclusivity becomes your Achilles heel. It shrinks your addressable market. Especially if you work in the gaming business with games-services or shareware products. Another platform is just another way to open the funnel, get more people into it. In the world of free-to-play, as we know, 95% of these people will never spend a penny. In business, the main thing is conversion. You should improve your chances by opening the funnel. Helldivers 2 proved that on PlayStation while also coming to PC.”
“Again, expand the funnel. Let more people in. For single-player games the requirement is different. But if you spent $250 million, you want to be able to sell the game to as many people as possible, even if it's only 10% more. Global installed base of consoles: If you go back to the PS1 and everything else, no matter what you look at, the total number of consoles will never exceed 250 million.
During the pandemic, when many companies overinvested. Look at our growing numbers! We have to keep up with this rocket! We're not doing enough to bring people who haven't used consoles into the world of console gaming. We don't attract them by doing more than we are doing now. If 95% of the people in the world don't want to play Call of Duty, Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto, the industry will just produce more Call of Duty, Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto, right? But that won't bring you new users.”