Former Sony SIE CEO: worried about the "acquisition phenomenon" in the game industry, making it difficult for studios to maintain creativity

CTOnews.com Shawn Layden, a former Sony PlayStation executive, has been bullish on the game industry's "acquisition phenomenon," CTOnews.com previously reported that Layden called Google, Netflix, Amazon and Apple "barbarians at the door" in a speech at the GamesIndustry.biz investment summit.

Shawn Layden reiterated this point in his podcast recently, arguing that the game industry's "acquisition phenomenon" will affect studio creativity.

Some 'small' and 'independent' studios are slower to create their own games when they are acquired by larger companies, killing their creativity.

In addition to this, members of these studios may have been temporarily called to outsource development of other game titles, Shawn Layden claims, and several unrelated teams at Activision have been reassigned over the past few years to work on the Call of Duty series as support roles, including Bob Toys, who developed the Coyote.

Shawn Layden said: "I am only concerned about the impact of acquisitions on creativity within the studio, whether they can maintain independent creativity, or whether they will be absorbed by the larger whole? Time will tell, but it is worrying. When you go from hundreds of sounds to dozens of sounds, you lose some sounds. "

Shawn Layden, former president of Sony PlayStation: Apple and other "outsider giants" are big threats to the game industry