Shawn Layden says PS4 games cost $100mil to make! Predicts PS5 games will cost double!!

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-09-05-ex-playstation-boss-predicts-ps5-games-will-cost-usd200m-to-make

The former boss of PlayStation has predicted PlayStation 5 games will cost $200m to make.

Shawn Layden, who held various executive roles at PlayStation before leaving in October 2019, told Bloomberg the cost of game development doubles with every platform.

Budgets for PlayStation 4 games Layden spearheaded each hit $100m, and, Bloomberg reports, Layden predicts PS5 games will each cost $200m to make and prices will only increase from there.

Big game companies will combat this exponential development cost by employing a "de-risk" strategy, Layden suggested, which in turn causes triple-A publishers to become "incentivised toward sequels".

Bloomberg points to publishers chasing trends, quoting Layden as saying: "What happens there is you end up with three to four silos of games or game types that continue to exist, and variety is squeezed out."

Sony is working on a raft of big-budget sequels for PS5 - although most are cross-gen titles that also have a PS4 version. Titles include Guerrilla's Horizon Forbidden West, Polyphony's Gran Turismo 7, and the next God of War from Sony Santa Monica.

Last of Us developer Naughty Dog is working on a standalone multiplayer game, as well as, reportedly, a remake of The Last of Us.

Bloomberg did question Layden about his own role in the creation of this sustainability issue while at PlayStation - after all, the former exec was chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios up to late 2019, before which PlayStation had released a number of eye-catching PS4 exclusives, such as Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Days Gone and Marvel's Spider-Man.

"I think I contributed a part into showing the world what amazing gameplay can look like," Layden responded.

Damn, that's pretty crazy, SW. Do you believe this? $200million is like Avatar budget lol. I could see games like GTA having that kind of budget. But a Sony linear first party game? Not sure about that. Does this help justify the $70 price tag in your opinion?

No wonder Sony is pushing their games on PC. As I have said years ago, exclusives are not sustainable at those budgets. The good news is that a PC would negate the need of a PS5 in the near future. 😎

When Sony puts all their games on PC day one then you will be right. Let's hope it happens since Sony makes the best games in the industry while Microsoft keeps releasing hot rotten garbage.

Perfect timing. I was waiting for when this thread would become another Microsoft/Xbox thread. 😂🤣

I guess that’s why Sony is putting their games on PC. It’s not enough to milk cows, they need that PC money now.

The ND and GoW games will probably have budgets that high, but the majority won't even be close to 200 million.

Game Pass won't be sustainable if games cost that much either 😄

Where was PC mentioned in the OP?

Sony makes games for PC and this thread is about Sony games. Your ownage has been

@Pedro said:

@NathanDrakeSwag said:

Where was PC mentioned in the OP?

Sony makes games for PC and this thread is about Sony games. Your ownage has been

Nope. This thread has nothing to do with PC. Please learn how to read an OP before making an ass of yourself, even though that is a clearly a difficult task for you. Thanks.

That's okay, Sony will just double the price of games.

@NathanDrakeSwag:

Bloomberg did question Layden about his own role in the creation of this sustainability issue while at PlayStation - after all, the former exec was chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios up to late 2019, before which PlayStation had released a number of eye-catching PS4 exclusives, such as Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Days Gone and Marvel's Spider-Man.

Horizon Zero Dawn: PC Game, Days Gone: PC Game. Your ownage has been

@Pedro: Reading is crucial. PC was never mentioned until you brought it up in another desperate attempt to derail a thread. Even on a Sunday you can't give the trolling a rest. So sad.

@NathanDrakeSwag: You are upset that I call you out andnow you are foolishly trying to spin the inclusion of PC as a mismatch when 2 of the games mentioned were ported to PC.😂 At least you have a dedicated cosigner.🤣

100 dollar,10 hour Sony movie games

URGH

It's nice to see Sony continue to focus on making high-quality games, rather than spending money on schemes and gimmicks that won't improve the quality of games, such as subscriptions and streaming.

That is odd, so why did purchase Gakai and why do they have PSNow?

Sony has both subscription services and streaming though.

So don't spend that much

So sick of sean layden, guy thinks hes still something.

Jim Ryan is my guy he owns sony.

@Pedro: you have a lot of energy because you argue with these Sony Fanboys as if they're playing with a full deck. You know they are extremely hypocritical. Whenever Nintendo or Microsoft do something they talk a whole lot of crap about those two companies decisions but when Sony does the same exact thing then everything is Peaches and Cream in their book. Arguing with Sony Fanboys is futile and an extreme waste of time.

It is entertaining. This forum is not a place to take seriously. Ever so often there maybe a more legit discussion but most of it is just silly fanboy banter. 😁

@Pedro: oh okay I see what you mean now. I thought you guys were taking them seriously. 🤣😅🤣

Well, what I wanted to say is that Sony's main focus is still to create an ecosystem where they make the highest-quality AAA games and sell them in a sustainable manner without relying on subscriptions and streaming. Sure, Sony offers services like PSNow, but it doesn't look like they're investing heavily in it to change their business model unlike their competitors.

Alternate title: Ex-top level Sony exec admits they are extremely risk averse and like chasing trends with no creativity or variety.

Oh and this is a damn lie.

You made a contradictory statement. You said that they shouldn't spend money on things like subscriptions and streaming despite the fact that not only were the first, they still do. This makes your initial comment nonsensical. You also don't know what Sony future plans are with the streaming and subscription. Are you going to backtrack on your claims when they double down on their streaming and subscription services? Keep in mind, they have two subscription services and both offers games.

"Sony makes the best games in the industry " since when weeboo oriented games became the best of the industry ? 😆

By the low number of posts and the fact you have this account for now ten years, are you familar with the "culture" of System Wars? Most who are unfamilar with the "culture" of System Wars do not know that veterans of the forum do not take it seriously, and some like Pedro take enjoyment in debating with close-minded fanboys.

ouch. i thought the likes of Horizon and GOW had a 40-50 million quid budget. 100 million. that's.....not good.

no wonder MS and sony have buckled.

I'd like to know which games cost $100 million to make on ps4. I bet less than 10%.

UC4 and TLOU2 are the only two games that i see them costing anywhere near 100mil.

There's no way that GoW2018, an experiment (a reboot, you know), got 100mil or even close to it. And seeing a lot of recycled fights and animations, no way its more than 35mil.

I am also calling bullshit on his $200mil ps5 games. What announced ps5 game that looks like it has higher production than TLOU2? Nothing, and nothing even close.

Yeah, the whole interview just reeks of bitterness from Shawn because of how things shook out. He was alpha'd out of Sony by old Jimbo.

Indeed! He's probably also included the marketing budget and not just the production budget. I mean it's not like their games can stand alone on word of mouth.

lol where on earth does that money go to? How do you spend 200 million to develop a game?

Independent and small-scale developers making better games on budgets in the thousands.

Getting hollywood actors for one takes a huge chunk of money. Even b-list actors are getting more expensive. Also add to that the massive marketing campaign, boom, easy 200 mill.

So basically stuff that's not actually contributing* to the game? Got it.

I mean don't get me wrong, I'm sure the few million Activision dropped on having Josh Dushamel voice about three minutes of script in COD WWII was totally worth it :P just seems like a misappropriation of funds to focus on star power before, umm...game power.

*I know that's debatable

@mrbojangles25: Sadly, that's what sells to the casuals, and we know how these big companies would target the casuals as that's where the money's at.

The budget doubles but the quality or fun factor doesn't. Maybe put that money somewhere else?

Really?? If that's true, how are indie developers making games then?? Not even normal games but GOTY caliber games like hades, subnautica, ori?? Sounds like nonsense to me. I think only the ultra high end blockbuster AAA games cost that much to make. Halo cost $500M budget to make.

Lol, context is key. Shawn Layden mentions the crazy budgets. Sony needs to recoup. What do they do? They release their games on PC. This is absolutely related to the topic because the money from PC contributes to covering the development costs.

Xbox on the other hand has nothing to do with that.

Do you actually believe the bullsh*t that comes out of your mouth? Wow.

Sad thing is I think you do.

And people wonder why they won't dump these games day one on a game sub in a fit of desperation. Blockbuster gaming ain't cheap.

That is why they are making the games with the intention of being multi platform.😂

Makes no sense. If the PS5 can handle production quality assets (no need to make game ready models with baked maps on top of them) and raytracing (no need to bake lighting and manually place thousands of light sources to make the scenes look good), the games should costs less to make, assuming the other elements stay at a similar quality level (voice acting, animation, sound, etc.).

$100M budget is sustainable for Sony. They'd need 2-3M unit sales to break even. Everything above that is profit.

$200M budget is a tall order, but plausible. They'd need 4-5M unit sales to break even. So each game would need to sell at least 5-6M units to be profitable.

@BenjaminBanklin:

Ps has no games,deal with it

100 million yet none can innovate and bring us something new? I think its time we had another video game crash, the the indie devs have at it.

Xbox hasn't had a new first party exclusive since launch. Just hand-me-downs, multis and indies. Worst game system ever. 🤣