Sony’s Shawn Layden recently took part in an interview with VentureBeat. There, Layden talked about a variety of topics. Obviously, if we’re writing an article about a Sony interview, then you can assume that this is because Nintendo was mentioned. Indeed, when Layden talked about Sony’s first-party content, he mentions that Sony is “never going to be like Nintendo”. Here’s what Layden said in full:
Does Sony have the right number of first-party developers and studios for the console war?
For Worldwide Studios now, our output, the number of teams we have, I think it’s about the right size for what we need to do. We’re never going to be like Nintendo, holding the lion’s share of the Nintendo platform game business, because that’s not the way we work. We want to make the PlayStation platform available to all of our third-partners. I think we build success for PlayStation by getting as many people inside the tent as possible that aren’t necessarily controlled by Worldwide Studios.
For Worldwide Studios, our road to success is not necessarily measured by how many studios or how many people I have. It’s if we’re creating significant, impactful, important content that’s either first, best, or must-have products. I don’t really think it’s a numbers game like that.
Another arrogant Sony exec right there.
I believe it’s completely the opposite. They know they don’t have as many impactful first party titles as Nintendo, so they always look to Ally with as many third parties as they can to succeed.
So what are they saying about nintendo?!?
I’d say that’s a compliment to Nintendo. Acknowledging they have the best/most appealing 1st party games.
It also sounds like a very markety statement, a simple statement like that will DEFINITELY make headlines, and headlines are usually what a ton of people go by.
If I just went by that headline, it sounds like “we have 3rd party, Nintendo doesnt.”
Nintendo has a lot of first party games and that’s why people buy their systems. If sony and Microsoft cut on first party games they wouldn’t still be OK because third party is basically driving the success. If a game releases on all three platforms you can see the Nintendo platform does significantly worse than the other two
This.
Well, I agree with the part about Nintendo being successful with first party titles.
We will see what will happen with Starlink
Too bad they are acting like little bitches and not allowing cross play. This coming from someone who owns a PS4
Like who doesn’t own a PS4 at this point. 😂
Me. Personally I’m not interested on Sony’s hardware from 3 years
I don’t have much information on this matter, however I think majority of Nintendo First Order members don’t own PS4 or Xbox One.
me! i’ve never owned any Sony system.
Woot Woot eat that!
Oh great. Then port Bloodborne and Nioh over to the Switch.
I feel like a large portion of the people aren’t understanding what Sony is saying here…. so to clarify as some people are asking what is being said or some are saying Sony is arrogant for saying it,,,, This is what Sony means with what they said about 3rd party etc,,, The vast majority of software sold on Nintendo platforms are Nintendo developed and published games such as Zelda, Mario etc,,, they don’t rely as heavily on 3rd party support but people buy their system for their first party studio titles,,, Sony has enough exclusive studios to sell plenty of software but they have no plans on the majority of the software sold on their system to be things they have developed, they would rather have close relationships with the 3rd party industry to be the bulk of those sales so all developing companies have weight and revenue/profit potential on their system. Thus games like GTA, COD, Red Dead, Assassins Creed etc will also have high sales on their systems and keep their system appealing to 3rd party developers,,, I don’t see how them saying this is in any way arrogant but a truthful view on their sales and their plans going forward. So it’s not them saying anything bad about any other company it’s just them outlining their business plan on having what they feel is enough exclusive titles to mesh well with the 3rd party sales on their platform. Hopefully that clears things up
“The vast majority of software sold on Nintendo platforms are Nintendo developed and published ”
Mostly because nobody else ever bothers to publish on the platform. Do you think GTA V Switch wouldn’t sell?
“Sony has enough exclusive studios to sell plenty of software but they have no plans on the majority of the software sold on their system to be things they have developed,”
Because they couldn’t if they wanted to, though this is a nice spin.
“Thus games like GTA, COD, Red Dead, Assassins Creed etc will also have high sales on their systems and keep their system appealing to 3rd party developers,”
Can you give any kind of explanation for how first party sales would hurt any of those franchises?
Thanks for talking sense. (I’m serious Btw). I couldn’t agree more.
Except why should I consider them for my 3rd Party purchases over say getting a gaming PC or jumping ship to Microsoft? Sony has a whole bunch of exclusive studios but they aren’t making much of anything other than the usual over hyped, over budget AAA junk that Ubisoft and Activision make.
But what about the numerous IPs Sony has that they simply neglected though? This is just them saying they don’t even wanna try anymore which explains SO MUCH BTW..
Well they’re not wrong. Nintendo has a shady history of greed. They choked third party developers by not having enough game chips during the 8 bit nintendo days, or was it supernintendo, but either way developers jumped to sega and playstation and never looked back. That was the decline of nintendo.
I forgot to mention they instead wanted to make sure there was ample supply of game chips for first party games to make sure they didnt lose any sales.
I’d say the decline started during the N64 days, cause they had great support during the NES and SNES era. Although had the N64 had some great first party titles, they lacked in 3rd party, but that was partly due they stuck with cartridges rather than CDs.
U also forgot they made the RAM into 2 separate spots, tht had to go through the GPU to interact with each other. Which made 3rd party titles hav much more trouble working on the N64, even if the system was roughly 2-3 times more powerful than PS1.
Except that Nintendo hasn’t declined, and Sony is garbage (as is the PlayStation)
Oh they did decline. After N64, they went downhill. It wasn’t til the Switch that they started doing exceptionally well again on all fronts. Nintendo was good during the Wii era but it still had a lot of things wrong with it. And Sony & PlayStation is garbage? Actually, a lot of people would strongly disagree with you. The only thing at Sony that is actual garbage is their movie division.
Infinite Ridley, I think that’s why they are selling their movie company.
I heard rumors they were planning on it but I’ve never heard concrete word that they were actually trying to sell it. If Disney wasn’t trying to buy 21st Century Fox, I’d say they should go after Sony Pictures.
You should watch the full history of nintendo
Neez, since you’re linking Nintendo’s history, you should know then that their iron grip over the games coming out on the NES days was essential for the market’s resurrection in the USA. Nintendo had just brought the market back from the crash caused by things like Atari’s ET and an overflow of game consoles no one wanted. By controlling demand with their iron grip, they could stop anther ET fiasco from happening and keep the market healthy for the duration of its monopoly.
Bottom line, it was a necessary evil.
Infinite Ridley Sony IS garbage in their games division now. If you were talking the first two Playstations, you’d have a point but the PS3 had a terrible launch price that cost them in the long run and the only reason the PS4 has 75 Mil is due to pandering to a terrible consumer base of posers and non gamers who are bought in by the graphics alone with the only exceptions being people who bought it for 3rd Party support. Almost all of their exclusives are cinematic heavy scripted gameplay over hyped AAA junk that Activision, EA and Ubisoft fart out several times a year.
They might be playing games you hate but they are still gamers since they are playing, well, games. But it’s your opinion so whatever. Just remember there are some that will strongly disagree with you.
Hey LordTerminal, don’t you want to become member of Nintendo First Order? Majority of your attitudes corresponds with our view of the gaming world.
While this is completely true, in Nintendo’s defense, nobody exactly knew what the long term stable relationship between platform holders and video game publishers was going to look like. The only other real example at the time was Atari, who destroyed their own platform by not policing it closely enough. Nintendo didn’t want to see the NES flooded with hundreds of garbage titles that destroyed consumer confidence as happened to the 2600. Yes, they overcompensated, but it’s not like any of them had experience doing this at that point. Essentially nobody on the planet did.
Surprise surprise…Sony are under fire because of the cross play debacle and their first reaction is to get cocky again. Never liked that about them. Shit attitude.
But, they still release a similar number of big exclusives so what is he on about?
The exclusives isn’t made entirely from them.
Let me explain. While Nintendo is a company that not only makes hardware but it makes also software like Super Mario Odyssey, TLoZ Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2 and others. Sony makes only hardware and third party developers bring their games to them.
Sure you can say The Last of Us is a game only on the PS but it’s developed by Naughty Dog and not from Sony himself
Sony owns Naughty Dog
I think Nioh would be a better example. It sold well on PS but was developed by Koei Tecmo which are in no way owned by Sony or anything, so a third party exclusive. Naughty Dog is owned by Sony. It’s one of their Developers.
Nintendo did mention that console wars was is a bad idea and it’s unhealthy.
And yet some competition is needed so the consoles get further enhanced and the companies actually put a little effort into it. If there was no competition, all of them would just lay around and do nothing and console development would be halted.
Exactly. This is what happens when the companies do something stupid and made a mistake.
what console war? Nintendo says crap like that because they never intended to be in the “console wars”.
Did they?
To me, it almost seems more like the exec is talking about attracting third party developers more than allowing Sony brands on competative systems. The Sony brand has pushed to make their platform as attractive as possible to other brands, “because,” they do not have that “Nintendo-je ne sais quoi” which allows Nintendo to utilize itself more.
I think this is an interesting mindset, because it is one that has actually backfired on Nintendo. Nintendo, as a brand, is incredibly strong. The company can sustain itself, but not as effectively as it could with 3rd party support. So, even though Sony is not the power-house that Nintendo is, Sony is dominating the “numbers game,” where it has the most friends.
In a popularity contest, the one with the most friends always wins. Nintendo hasn’t done the best job making itself friends with all the other video game studios.
someone buy this man a 🍺!
Third-partner? I think he meant third parties.
I enjoy Sony being so arrogant and cocky. Just like the PS2 days. And then they were so great with the PS3 weren’t they? Oh wait, the 360 murdered them that generation. Nintendo and Microsoft looking poised to over take Sony once again because of Sony’s arrogance in the next run of consoles
Sony are smashing nintendo. What relevant games does nintendo have this year? Octopath traveller and super smash bros. The nintendo delusionals will include the crap kirby game and mario tennis because they have no games. If you dont care about smash bros this holiday what do you have? A casual pokemon go cellphone game? No games.
Ark survival, Starlink, dark souls, wolfenstein 2, smash, Mario party.
More than enough for me thanks
So old inferior ports, starlink? Seriously? Mario party shovelware. No games.
You are totally correct nintendo dropped the ball big time this year! Any faithful Nintendo gamer who a Wii U was totally disregarded by Nintendo this year! And they proven they haven’t got the slimmest chance to get ahead of the race again
Sony are smashing Nintendo… With games that will be released next year…
By the way your argument isn’t correct to the statement of this man and Sony should be prepared against the Xbots instead of Nintendo
Sony was doing very well this gen til they started fighting against cross-play to the point they are actually holding Epic accounts for Fortnite hostage if you so much as play a second of Fortnite on PS4 with your Epic account. They better do a 180 degree turn soon in that area before they release the PS5 or it might bite them in the ass when it inevitably releases.
In regards to this article in particular, I think others have explained what Sony means better than I ever could.
Well, whatever SONY is doing, it must be the right thing. Because I LOVE the huge selection of games on the PS4 etc. SO many interesting titles (once upon a time, I had an attitude towards games on Playstation. Until I started playing them). My favorite genre is open world games. And the PS4 has MANY of those. So I can see why I love my PS4. Not to mention I love some of their exclusives, such as The Last Of Us.
“We want to make the PlayStation platform available to all of our third-partners.”
“Except you, PQube. Now get back in the corner.”
Again, another reason why I am glad I sold my PS4.
I was waiting price to go down just to buy it for Nier Automata. Then that game got released on PC, so don’t think I’ll ever buy one.
The fact the interviewer says “console war” is so immature and hilarious. What is this, 5th grade playground talk?
I miss the console war talk. Those were the days (SNES Vs Genesis). Though the winner was always Super NES. No matter what anyone ever tried to say.
https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/51246088/oh-its-a-deep-burn-oh-its-so-deep.jpg
Sorry, but that’s such a burn. It’s so true. 3rd party support on Switch is pitiful.
He got hyperdefensive and started lashing out because he’s painfully aware that the roster of Sony first party properties is a joke, their Smash Bros. clone was a total admittance of this inferiority, so he’s trying to get into the “Third parties are king” bandwagon, as if anyone is buying a Switch to play fucking Fifa and not Zelda, Splatoon or Mario, as if the XBOX One isn’t exactly the same as the PS4 in this regard and they’re splitting their markets by having 99% the same games.
Look at the 3DS versus the Vita, a console is not sold based on third parties, it’s sold on exclusives.
What is Worldwide Studios?
Worldwide Studios is the group of video game developers (such as Naughty Dog) owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
NIntendo and Microsoft need to make a baby…
Sony just like nintendo are buisness companies they are in for the money plain and simple, they both often get a bit too greedy and this hurts us the consumers and thats when we should start showing our dissaproval with our wallets or they will never learn.
Just an entity made up of ALL Sony first party studios. They make up the PlayStation Division. Think of them as the MS of Microsoft. Microsoft as a whole is a HUGE corporation, but their gaming division is called MS which means Microsoft Studios (or Microsoft Gaming Studios, which is what they use to go by.)
Sony have some incredible 1st party games: Bloodborne, God of War, The Last of Us, Shadow of the Colossus, Little Big Planet, Tokyo Jungle, Ratchett and Clank etc. I know a lot of them are owned by Sony but made by other studios, but Sony has some amazing exclusives and that is why they so so well. Nintendo, when thet release their big guns like Zelda, Mario, Core Pokemon, Metroid, these are the best games on the planet, but Nintendo has so many filler games like Mario Party, Kirby, pokemon spin offs etc that cant in the slightest compete with Sony’s exclusives and their third party output.
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