It’s easy to look at something and see its success, and say, “Well, that industry is going to be doing well forever!” Or that it would “take something big to bring it down!” That perception can be described as “gilded” because all you see is the glitter, not the darkness underneath. The video game industry is in a good place overall right now, and there’s plenty of potential for growth in the future. However, by that same token, we’re already seeing some not-so-good practices, and one former PlayStation boss highlighted that in a recent interview where he called out certain things.
We’re specifically talking about former PlayStation head Shawn Layton, who discussed with Lan Parties multiple things, including how we need to do better in preserving video games overall:
“I’m hoping that more people in the industry, certainly the big players, begin to realize that there’s an obligation and responsibility. This isn’t throw-away stuff we’re making. This is stuff that should be around for a long time because future generations will enjoy it in the same way that we have and it’s criminal that we’re not doing more to protect it.”
He’s not the only person to voice something about that, as multiple people have called out the shutdowns of certain gaming stores as ways of easily losing games that aren’t likely to be preserved for one reason or another and that things need to be done to save them.
That wasn’t the only thing he called out, however. He also called out the acquisitions that Microsoft has been making recently, saying that “consolidation” within the gaming industry could lead to big problems:
“My concern around consolidation is that often it impacts creativity,” he said. “For instance, it takes some kind of small, independent, wildhorse studios and brings them into a larger conglomerate and essentially time slows down the bigger you are, time slows down. I’m also concerned when studios get bought and instead of enabling a way to create their game, they maybe get absorbed into a larger enterprise that’s making a larger game, you know, how many studios are involved in making blockbuster games that will stagger the mind.”
That’s not an illogical fear; we’ve already seen the fallout from some of these purchases. For example, certain multiplatform franchises have become exclusives, and games that arguably wouldn’t have been made in the past were ushered through without oversight simply because “they had faith in the teams,” even when the teams didn’t have faith in the game.
Hopefully, certain things turn around before it’s too late.
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