Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden predicts $200-million budgets for PS5 games

Shawn Layden has shared his thoughts on the costs of game development. According to his predictions, PS5 titles will cost $200 million to make, with prices growing exponentially from there.

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Layden told Bloomberg that game development “seems to double in cost every platform,” saying that each PS4 exclusive cost around $100 million to produce.

The thing that the former PlayStation chief worries about is that this trend will make companies develop only safe and unoriginal games. “If we can’t stop the cost curve from going up, all we can do is try to de-risk it,” he said, adding, “What happens there is you end up with 3-4 silos of games or game types that continue to exist, and variety is squeezed out.”

In June, Shawn Layden also called consolidation the “enemy of diversity,” saying that the games industry might crumble “if we just keep talking to the same people and telling the same stories in the same way.”