Shawn Layden, who used to be the big boss at PlayStation, thinks that the console war between Sony and Microsoft should finally end.
In a chat with Eurogamer, Layden compared the rivalry between PlayStation and Xbox to the old battle between VHS and Betamax, which VHS won before both faded away.
“With Xbox versus PlayStation, the Ali versus Frazier fight… Frankly, we have to start interrogating what the purpose is of a proprietary console, and whether that can continue to be true,” said Layden. “When you have competing formats, competing platforms, competing technologies, there comes a time when we all declare the war is over… But the real competition will be on its content. And content should be the competition for publishers, not which hardware you get behind. I think we’re at a point where the console becomes irrelevant in the next… if not the next generation then the next next generation definitely.”
Microsoft has been letting some Xbox games show up on PlayStation 5, like the new Indiana Jones game, but Layden thinks Sony doesn’t need to do the same and bring PS5 games to Xbox.
“Should PlayStation, with that huge market lead and the momentum, apparently, going forward, should they build versions of their games to run on a competing platform of much smaller size and scale? As the saying goes, I don’t know if the juice is worth the squeeze,” related Layden. “You know the Sony fanbase gets really upset whenever a game comes out on PC, 18 months after the original release on PlayStation… And if that’s what they’re going to say about a PC release, just imagine what the market would say about Xbox releases from PlayStation Studios.”
We wonder if consoles will matter much in the future or if they’ll just be old news.
Layden also mentioned before that he thinks these rival consoles have hit a “ceiling” and shouldn’t be arguing “over teraflops.” Sony is already looking ahead to a PlayStation 6, while the next Xbox is still in the guessing stage. Both companies are also thinking about making new handheld gaming devices, which is exciting!
