The PlayStation 3 (PS3) era could’ve been the end of PlayStation as we know it. That’s according to former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden.
In a new interview with Eurogamer, Layden spoke on a number of topics about the console that turned 30 on December 3. One of the topics, in particular, centered around the PS3 and its disastrous launch in 2006.
For those who either don’t remember or were too young, the PS3 was panned at its launch due to the console’s pricing, lack of launch titles, and development issues, among other concerns. It’s a moment in time that Layden said had people at the company “happy to have survived”.
“PS3 was Sony’s Icarus moment,” he said. “We had PS1, PS2… and now we’re building a supercomputer! And we’re going to put Linux on it! And we’re going to do all these sorts of things! We flew too close to the sun, and we were lucky and happy to have survived the experience, but it taught us a lot.”
Layden continued buy saying that Sony learned for the development of the PS4 that they don’t necessarily have to build everything for the console in-house. It’s ok to buy components if possible.
“You can manage the cost better,” he said. You can argue with vendors, get better deals instead of building your own thing.
“We also learned that the center of the machine has to be gaming. It’s not about whether I can stream movies or play music. Can I order a pizza while I’m watching TV and play? No, just make it a game machine. Just make it the best game machine of all time. I think that’s what really made the difference. When PS4 came out, it set us against what Xbox was trying to do. [They wanted to] build more of a multimedia experience, and we just wanted to build a kick ass game machine.”
The PS3 ultimately rebounded from its launch to sell 87.4 million consoles. That put it just ahead of the Xbox 360’s 85.7M in lifetime sales but below the Wii’s 101.6M.
What do you think of Layden’s view that Sony was happy to have survived the PS3 launch and era? Let us know down below, and join more discussions in the official GPlayr forums.
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