Game development "seems to double in cost every platform," Layden said, noting that his budgets for recent big PlayStation 4 titles each hit $100 million. "If we can't stop the cost curve from going up, all we can do is try to de-risk it. That puts you in a place where you're incentivized toward sequels." He predicted that PS5 games will cost $200 million to make and that prices will continue to grow exponentially from there.
The result of these higher budgets is an endless cavalcade of stale annual releases in ubiquitous series like Call of Duty and Madden. At the same time, every publisher is chasing the latest billion-dollar trends, from Candy Crush to Fortnite to Roblox. "What happens there is you end up with 3-4 silos of games or game types that continue to exist, and variety is squeezed out," Layden said. His former company reflects that strategy as well, with a
focus on blockbusters above all else.
Yet at PlayStation, Layden was instrumental in the video game industry's Sisyphean quest for increasingly larger worlds and more beautiful graphics, a role he now downplays. "I think I contributed a part into showing the world what amazing gameplay can look like," he said when I asked about his own responsibility for the sustainability problem. After all, vast, expensive PS4 games such as Uncharted 4 and Ghost of Tsushima raise the bar for everyone else. Players have grown accustomed to games that are more massive and beautiful every year in part because of PlayStation's slate of excellent exclusives.
Layden said he hopes that Streamline's focus on helping facilitate game development around the world will lead to more diverse games, which ultimately will help balance out the heavyweights at the top.
