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Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says that Xbox's recent moves imply that those involved lack an understanding of how the games industry works.
To give Xbox credit, throughout the 2020's, it's been a perfect example of how to be entirely inconsistent. From deciding to become a multi-platform publisher, to changing its mind with the likes of Gears of War E-Day, only for rumors to emerge that actually, it might change its mind again and that it was nothing more than a way to advertise to an increasingly short-changed Xbox fanbase. And sure, Xbox CSO Matthew Ball denies this, but forgive me if I'm not taking info at face value from a publisher that announced a new Senua game just over a week before reports emerged that Microsoft is apparently planning to close its developer Ninja Theory.
All of this is to say, there's definitely a feeling coming out of Xbox that there's a bit of an identity crisis going on, and when game consultant Tadhg Kelly pointed out some of these recent inconsistencies (via RespawnFirst), the former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios (and former President and CEO of the American branch) Shawn Layden commented on Xbox's recent moves. "At the risk of sounding like a 'hater' (which, I'm really not) the moves evince a basic misunderstanding of how the interactive entertainment world moves," he writes.
Unfortunately, it's hard to argue with Layden's perspective, as the string of seemingly random decisions out of Xbox, as well as things like leadership changes and mixed messaging, have inspired more confusion than hope for the console maker and publisher. Even as someone who hasn't exactly been on team Xbox since the 360 – I mean, why would I be when I can play all of its games on PC and PS5 – a healthy Xbox is better for the industry overall. But a company that has rounds of layoffs and studio closures seemingly as often as it releases games can't really be called healthy, can it?
Microsoft considered cutting Xbox off entirely and making it easier to sell, report says.
