Sony ‘Lucky’ to Have Survived PS3 Era, Says Shawn Layden

This week, Sony celebrates 30 years of PlayStation. Reflecting on the PS3 era in a recent interview with Eurogamer, former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden called it an “Icarus” moment for the company—saying they “flew too close to the sun.” Despite the challenges, Layden noted that the team was grateful to have made it through, though it was a time filled with valuable lessons.

Lessons Learned from the PS3 Era

“We had PS1, PS2… and now we’re building a supercomputer!” Layden recalls. “And we’re going to put Linux on it! And we’re going to do all these sorts of things! We flew too close to the sun, and we were lucky and happy to have survived the experience, but it taught us a lot.” Layden reflects that, despite its ambitions, the PS3 ultimately struggled in several key areas, especially in comparison to the more straightforward success of the Xbox 360.

When the PlayStation team transitioned to the PS4, they applied the lessons they had learned. “And going to PS4, we learned things like: buy it, don’t build it, if you can,” Shawn Layden explained. “It helped us manage the cost better. You can argue with vendors, get better deals instead of building your own thing.” This shift in approach allowed Sony to streamline production and avoid many of the pitfalls that had slowed the PS3’s progress.

Shifting Focus for the PS4

Layden further emphasized that Sony’s key takeaway was the realization that the PS4’s core focus needed to be on gaming, rather than becoming a multimedia hub. “We just had to make sure it was the best game machine of all time,” he said. “I think that’s what really made the difference. When PS4 came out, it set us against what Xbox was trying to do. [They wanted to] build more of a multimedia experience, and we just wanted to build a kick ass game machine.” This laser focus on gaming performance, rather than added features, played a major role in the PS4’s success, making it the top console of its generation.

While the PS3 didn’t reach the same heights as some of Sony’s other consoles, it eventually became profitable. Layden acknowledged that the PS3’s struggle was partly due to its lack of online capabilities compared to the Xbox 360, and its over-ambitious design, which hindered its early success. Despite these challenges, the PS3 hardware took a “long time” to start generating profit. In contrast, the PS4 was built with lessons from the PS3 in mind, and, as Layden puts it, was essentially a “no-loss product from day one.”