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Shawn Layden, the former head of Sony Worldwide Studios, believes that the world of AA gaming is in the midst of a “rebirth”. Following games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the industry has proven that smaller budget games can massively succeed, but is this a sign of changing times?
Layden, who joined Sony in 1987, oversaw PlayStation’s rise of first-party, big-budget exclusive software. In an interview with GamesIndustry, Layden explained that the time of AAA isn’t over, but smaller projects are going to become more prominent again as they can “move more quickly” than huge budget games.
“Everything old is new again,” the former PlayStation executive told the outlet, highlighting Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and PlayStation’s own Astro Bot as examples of smaller projects that can buck market trends.
“I think that’s where the growth is going to be,” Layden said. “We’re going to see a rebirth of what we used to call – or we could still call it – AA gaming, with a wide variety of content and games.”
The PlayStation boss urged developed to “stop chasing photorealism” as “we’re never going to get there anyway” and instead focus on the “right story” to tell. “If you have the right story, if you have the right envitonment, if you have great characters, anything works,” he explained.
On the other side, Layden explained that the companies in charge of AAA development “have all expanded to an unsustainable size”, mostly due to rampant acquisitions and huge hiring spikes during the pandemic.
In recent months, this has caused mass layoffs and the cancellation of numerous projects. Just recently, Microsoft scrapped the development of Elder Scrolls Online developer ZOS’ next MMO, Rare’s Everwild and the very expensive Perfect Dark reboot.
“You’re seeing studios or projects being cancelled, really not out of any problem with the game per se, it’s just the cost structure was not sustainable, and they had to clear their balance sheets,” Layden said. “There’s a lot of that going on right now.”
Nevertheless, there’s hope that smaller, more frequent AA games with shorter dev cycles will be a prominent part of the video game industry’s future, alongside your usual AAA giants. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn’t the start of this shift—the game was in development for a few years, after all—but it’s a healthy sign to publishers that AA still has a place in the industry.
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