Shawn Layden Departs From Sony Interactive Entertainment

Back in February of this year, we discovered the moving news that then-Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime will be stepping down from his position at the video game conglomerate as he will be retiring from the Japanese company after working at Nintendo for 15 years. Now a similar sense of events has happened just at the other end of 2019 for Sony’s Shawn Layden.

Announced this Monday, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden will be stepping down from his position at the company after working internally at Sony for more than thirty years.

However, unlike Doug Bowser who was announced to take Fils-Aime’s place following his last day at Nintendo, a replacement for Layden’s position has yet to be shared from either Sony nor through an official statement from Layden himself. While Fils-Aime did follow his February announcement with the creation of his own Twitter account, the same cannot be said for Layden for his departure.

Layden this generation for the PlayStation 4 has been a tremendous push for classic IPs like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon returning to circulation after nearly a decade of no active development. He also showed strong enthusiasm for the platform’s PlayStation VR initiative which gave the overall genre a kick start for the industry: which you can read my full piece on by going here.

Ultimately it will be saddening to see now a second face of the three major platforms leaving after working three decades at Sony. Reflecting on the most recent Game Awards presentation where Phil Spencer, Reggie Fils-Aime, and Shawn Layden all shared the stage at the awards ceremony, that moment still holds up to be a truly monumental instance that the industry still cannot believe to happen where games can bring even competitors together.