Speaking at Gamescom Asia, former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden offered a grim diagnosis for the state of the games industry: AA studios have disappeared, and rising development costs have left the industry in a creative death spiral (via GamesIndustry.

Ex-PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has shared his perspective on the current state of the games industry. During a conversation at Gamescom Asia (via GamesIndustry.biz) with Raw Fury co-founder and chief publishing officer Gordon Van Dyke,

Shawn Layden, a former Sony exec, has said that relying on blockbuster games is a 'death sentence,' lamenting the demise of AA titles in the industry.

A former PlayStation boss explains why he thinks modern games are suffering a 'collapse of creativity' and points out some other concerning trends.

Shawn Layden, the ex-PlayStation executive who held a number of high-profile roles across Sony Interactive Entertainment, believes there’s been a “collapse” in creativity across the industry due to “studio consolidation and the high cost of production”.

There are more games coming out every day than ever before, but the total number of people playing them hasn’t seemed to grow by nearly the same amount. Former SIE Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden says that mismatch can’t be fixed just by churning out endless big-budget sequels and more powerful hardware.

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden believes that "AA is gone," leaving a gap between AAA and indie games and forming "a threat to the ecosystem" of the games industry. In a talk during Gamescom Asia (reported on by GamesIndustry.

With more and more studios opting to make spin-offs, sequels and reboots of existing I.P. rather than explore new concepts and stories, former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has declared there is a "collapse of creativity" in the games industry.