Will PlayStation's Exec Departure Affect PlayStation 5?

On this week's episode of IGN's PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Brian Altano, Max Scoville, and Tom Marks to discuss the news that Shawn Layden is departing PlayStation. The cast dives into theorizing about how this will affect the PS5, if at all, what this might mean for Sony in the short term, and more.

Plus, the cast discusses PlayStation Now's new low price point and library additions, the exciting ability to play God of War on a PC, The Last of Us Part 2's lack of multiplayer, and plenty more on the latest PlayStation news. The cast also reads a couple of great Memory Card stories, and much more.

[yellowgerbil]

All the old blood is leaving, but that makes sense they've been with Sony for like 30 years and I think they want to pass on the torch. Why work till you're dead when you are a million a year CEO? Retire on your own private island

[Necr0philiac]

Your completely right. I also think Microsoft burned a lot of bridges during the 360 era. They were the first to have voice chat available to everyone. I think about every other match i played you heard people dropping the N word or other racial slurs. It wasn't as bad during the OG Xbox era because of a smaller user base

[yellowgerbil]

Many said Nintendo invented the Dpad, but in reality it was invented nearly 2000 years earlier. Romans learned by pushing in the middle of the Dpad they could beat the final boss.
(Don't know what your comment has to do with anything so here is a response as off topic as possible)

[rainslacker]

Depends on if they're leaving because the changes to ps5 didnt sit well with them, or they just decided to leave.

Either way, the answer is probably no, because the roadmap for ps5 is probably already decided on the larger scale, and things change either way. Without knowing what Sony had planned before, it's actually impossible to know what may change, or what will stay the same.

[Necr0philiac]

I wasn't replying to that comment. Unless you edited it afterward and erased half the stuff you said! I do agree with your edited comment though

[yellowgerbil]

The comment wasn't edited, you must of hit reply to the wrong person. No biggy, everyone makes mistakes.

[-Foxtrot]

Did Jack leaving at the start of the PS4 affect this gen? No? Then you have your answer.

[NecrumOddBoy]

Yeah, Mark Cerny is the bridging architect and lead anyway, right?

[ShinjukuSon]

Man I miss Jack. Love that guy. Great Sony exec! Still remember E3 2013 when he thrashed Microsoft at the end and everyone was shouting SONY SONY SONY and he couldn't stop grinning.

[indysurfn]

wow....what in the world did he say?

[ApocalypseShadow]

Norio Ohga, Shigeo Maruyama, Howard Stringer, Phil Harrison, Ken Kutaragi, Jack Tretton, Kaz Harai, Andrew House, Dr Richard Marks, blah blah blah, yada yada yada, Shawn Layden, sis boom bah, mazel tov, happy new year and all that jazz.

If you get the point, and I've said this before, executives come and go. I've watched them go since the beginning of PlayStation. But as long as the good ship Sony is heading in the right direction, don't worry about it and try to make waves.

Just keep on gaming. And have fun doing it. Because the record so far is 3 out of 4 successes with the comings and goings. With 1 still doing very well even after some missteps. Don't worry about it.

[DarXyde]

4 out of 4.

Just because PS3 was less successful doesn't mean it was unsuccessful. Understand that 3 of the 4 Playstation consoles set a very high bar.

[Melankolis]

Lol. Well, actually, PS3 was less successful when a person stayed in his position for too long. He was and is a great person to be written with golden ink in history, but that's how the world works...

Change isn't only inevitable, it's necessary...

[ApocalypseShadow]

I know it was a success for me.

But Sony lost a lot of money with PS3 making Blu-ray a success that we use today. Who knows, maybe they made all that money back this gen and they were playing a long term strategy. The #1 physical format is Blu-ray. So that is a success. But the only PlayStation system to not hit 100 million because of Blu-ray.

[UltraNova]

What would happen if Phil Spencer announced his retirement today? Would everyone start worrying MS will suddenly change their future strategy if another suit took his place?

[OB1Biker]

PS leaving would make much more waves because theres been an irrational cult of personality about him

[UltraNova]

OB1,

But the "issue" here is not popularity but how an exec leaving might affect a company's future policy...

[OB1Biker]

Yes your right.
Policy probably wouldn't change much. However the impact would be felt differently in the press, in marketing etc

[UhOh]

Well the people that don't like him might think it is good. I don't think most would care.

[rainslacker]

I wouldn't, because I still am not convinced hes making the decisions for xbox, and rather is just responsible for enacting ms overall plans, because many of the decisions u see coming from xbox seem to be geared to MS overall goal.

Could be hes doing what he thinks will achieve that goal, or, he's just a middle manager type despite his position.

Sony, while they have influential people within the business, sony proper is more hands off. Things like bluray may be initiatives, but it made sense for the way games were going. Same as CELL. Poor judgement on execution, sure, but we have what CELL introduced anyways in GPU compute. Ps3 they got carried away, but it was still supposed to be a game system, and while they market their systems as multimedia products, it's still geared towards gaming. So long as they continue to do that, and maintain power enough for the gen, theyll be fine.

[slavish0]

It could remember ps4 doubling ram last minute

[UltraNova]

Or the other thing, removing DRM and the kinect "necessity" at the last minute?

[slavish0]

Wft does that have to do with a ps exec leaving tho? I'm not talking about blind fanboys stuff. Playstation had good leadership to double the ram. Thats all I'm saying. I bet the exec approved it.

[jukins]

Dont think any executive leaving had anything to do with the ram. That is more of Cerny listening to feedback from developers who all basically said more ram is whats needed. And cerny convincing the bigwigs it had to be done.

[MasterCornholio]

I also read somewhere that the increased ram from the manufacturer became available at the last minute as well.

[PhoenixUp]

Do people just expect executives to stay doing their jobs until they die?

[UltraNova]

No, but they should quietly leave their Companies or advice fans & preess on find a suitable timeframe when they don't feel particularly doomy and gloomy...

[rainslacker]

Used to be one month, an exec could be at a console maker, the next at a major publisher. No one knew, no one cared, no one really over analyzed it as if it matters.

Internet age has made more mundane things more important than they need to be. Like mattrick leaving was probably in the works before he left, because he landed a new position pretty damn quick

[ShadowWolf712]

That date was when Japanese companies usually announce staff changes as it's the start of the second half of their fiscal year.

Everyone over here, however, proceeded to freak out.

[isarai]

Nah it's too late to make any major changes now

[MasterCornholio]

Most of the plans for the PS5 are already set. So I doubt it will affect the console in a major way. And who knows it could even make the system better.

We will have to wait and see what happens.

[AK91]

Only time will tell

[Artemidorus]

No like many jobs these roles are replaced often.

[XabiDaChosenOne]

Its weird Layden left and then literally a day later Playstation starts promoting PSNow hard. Makes me think Sony and Layden had opposing views on the future of Playstation. Hopefully it works out, and Sony realizes streaming is not what consumers want.

[UhOh]

We will see what consumers want when they buy or don't buy the streaming options. And obviously a more mature technology. Albeit console gaming is fine as is.

[XabiDaChosenOne]

We already have an indication of how consumers feel about streaming.
https://www.gamesindustry.b...

[rainslacker]

I don't think it's weird, because the psnow promotion seems a bit too much planned to just be thrown together at the last minute. There were press releases, and professionally made ads, and the fact that layden himself was saying they'd be looking at doing more with it. There are the talks with MS apparently to improve the service, and while that isnt a thing that's come to pass, we know they were talking about it with MS, and layden would have given the green light for that talk

[Traecy]

I have supported all generations of PS consoles as I will with the PS5. The question at hand.... we'll see.

[NLink0714]

Or it could even be something unrelated to gaming entirely. People leave companies all the time. Some for good reasons. Some for other pursuits like getting poached. Some for sinister ones (ex inappropriate workplace conduct). I think people who are doom and gloom on Sony are more likely pro Xbox/anti PlayStation users that want to cast doubt on the next PlayStation.

There’s been 4 PlayStation console families and (forgive If I’m incorrect) essentially 6 total PlayStation device families. Of them, 5 were successful to varying degrees....some more than others. I think people think the ps3 was a failure but it did do several notable things (made Blu-ray winner of the format war, laid the roots for the unstoppable force that is now Sony first party, helped Sony become a more gamer focused company than prior). PSP was also “successful” as it was the first non-ninty handheld since GameGear to establish itself in a sizeable way. The vita, for all of its missteps, is still a pleasure to own (really great indie machine) even if it didn’t sell gangbusters.

Bottom line: PlayStation is gonna be ok. And if it isn’t...I’m sure angry gamers will voice their concerns accordingly. After all...they did that with Xbox and look how much that platform has changed.

[ScootaKuH]

Yeah, PS5 is doomed and Sony will go bankrupt. Aliens will invade earth and enslave us all, condemning us to a life of servitude and anal probes.

Damn that Shaun Layden. I hope he's happy...

[Exvalos]

Not as long as the new blood, just follows the plans already laid out. Long as they dont come in and try to fix what is not broken, Sony will continue to be the industry leader.

[Tross]

I doubt it.

[Vipre77]

Hopefully the next guy is a less boring public speaker. Laydon’s speeches were snooze fests. Good thing they had some game videos to keep people awake at every presentation he’s done. I enjoyed Jack Tretton’s speeches a lot more. His passion came through a lot more apparently and he was more animated on stage. Shawn’s speeches were more like a board meeting. :yawn: I’m getting sleepy just thinking about it.