As part of their week-long coverage of PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, Eurogamer sat down with Shawn Layden, former Chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, to ask a variety of questions, from his thoughts on the state of the industry to the lack of innovation in recent console generations. As a once high-profile executive at one of gaming’s most recognizable brands, Layden’s answers are an interesting read. On the subject of innovation, he says that the advent of online gaming has lessened the number of individual titles players pick up nowadays as compared to the PS1 and PS2 era, leading to studios being more risk averse and instead following trends. When asked about the constant rise of game development costs, Layden compares modern triple-A game development to the “cathedral business” of the late 1800s that’s well beyond sustainable at this point.

The interview is buttoned by Tom Phillips asking, “If console hardware becomes somewhat irrelevant, does competing on content see Sony putting PlayStation games on Xbox, as Microsoft has done on PlayStation?” To which Layden responds by stating how “Playstation has been the leader for almost every generation it’s been in,” and that they are “the leading platform in 170 countries around the world.” Which is true. Even the seventh console generation which saw Microsoft coming out swinging with the Xbox 360 and thoroughly beating Sony in terms of units sold during the early mid-2000s, ended with their momentum peetering out and Sony eventually surpassing them in numbers–granted by only a few million.

As such, Layden questions whether the ire of diehard PlayStation fans would be worth it to put games on a, as he says, “competing platform of much smaller size and scale” (quite the dig, Layden). He notes that fans of PlayStation already grumble at their beloved exclusives heading over to PC, so one can only imagine how a decision to put say a God of War on Xbox would fare amongst them. When asked a similar question about Nintendo, Layden says, “Historically, PlayStation and Nintendo platforms have lived happily side by side in living rooms across the world. It’s almost like a natural pairing.”

Shawn Layden retired in 2019, so who’s to say what decisions are being made at PlayStation HQ as we pass the midway point of the PS5 generation? Nevertheless, being able to see a bit inside the mind of one of gaming’s most respected heads is a treat.