Back in 2019, the main face associated with the PlayStation brand at the time happened to be that of Shawn Layden. Serving as the Head of Worldwide Studios beginning in 2014, Layden succeeded Jack Tretton and helped lead the company through the majority of the PlayStation 4 era. However, for one reason or another, Layden announced his departure from the brand in 2019 without providing very much context as to why he was moving on. Now, nearly two years after departing, Layden has spoken up more on his decision to leave Sony.
In a new conversation with Bloomberg, Layden expressed that he simply felt like it was a good time to hand over the reigns to someone new at PlayStation. “It’s a young person’s activity. I felt: This is a good time to put the pin in my legacy,” the former executive expressed. “That seemed like a good time to step off on top and allow another generation to take the PlayStation 5 to market.”
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At the time when Layden left PlayStation, some speculated that he may have been moving on due to internal drama that had started to come about. According to Layden, though, these rumors weren’t factual. I think I took my time at the moment I saw best to take it. And I couldn’t be happier,” he said.
In the time since leaving Sony, Layden’s successor happened to be that of Hermen Hulst, who previously was in charge of the team at Guerrilla Games. Over the years, Guerrilla has been most well-known for its work on the Killzone and Horizon Zero Dawn franchises.
Conversely, Layden has now moved on elsewhere, although he is still associated with the world of video games. Layden now serves on a board at Streamline Media, where he will help serve as a consultant to the team on all things related to video games. While it’s perhaps a bit more low profile than his last gig, Layden seems quite pleased with where he has ended up in the wake of leaving Sony.
Do you miss seeing Shawn Layden represent PlayStation? Let me know either down in the comments or over on Twitter at @MooreMan12.
