Shawn Layden has a bold proposition for how console sales can improve, but don’t expect it to ever actually happen.
There’s already been plenty of debate over whether video game consoles are dying or not. The continued sales success of the PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch 2 becoming the fastest-selling console ever suggest they’re not.
However, it was recently reported that US console sales had their worst November ever. Things aren’t much better here in the UK, with console sales down across the board compared to last year.
There’s likely no single solution on how to improve console sales, but former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has offered a suggestion on how the console market can try and reach a wider audience… it just sounds incredibly unlikely.
Recently, Layden appeared on the Pause for Thought podcast where he brought up how console sales tend to cap around similar numbers every generation.
‘We talk about gaming as being this $250 billion industry, which it is, and have hundreds of millions of users, which it does. But of course that includes if you’re playing Wordle, you’re a gamer. If you’re playing Candy Crush, you’re a gamer in that number,’ explained Layden.
‘But the number of discrete consoles sold over any particular generation caps out about 250 million. The one time it popped to almost 300 was the generation that had the Wii, and people thought you could buy Wii Fit and lose weight.
‘So, we got some non-traditional gaming audience to buy into the gaming industry at that time. But that was an anomaly and we’ve still kind of flattened out so we need to crack that cap, that barrier.’
Layden’s solution for breaking that barrier is essentially a unified format where any game can run on any console: ‘Maybe it just comes from PC. Maybe we find a way just to do it all in a Linux kernel or something. And then we have a consortium around that, we have licensing programs which allow other manufacturers to build into that space, and then you can talk about real numbers moving. You know, that’s how you get to the ubiquity of the toaster.’
Some will certainly see this as ideal, but such a plan requires all the console manufacturers to agree to it and that’s not going to happen any time soon. Sony may be willing to bring some of its games to Switch nowadays, but its biggest exclusives remain locked to PlayStation 5 and only see PC ports much later.
Similarly, Nintendo has shown zero interest in porting its exclusives anywhere else and it’s under no pressure to do so as evidenced by how popular the Switch 2’s Mario Kart World bundle has been.
Despite this idea, though, Layden has still extolled the virtues of console exclusives. Elsewhere in the interview, he strongly pushed back at the suggestion that exclusives are losing relevancy.
‘I don’t think every game should be console-exclusive, but I do accept the fact that if you’re going to have platform companies, like Sony and Nintendo… there is a huge value to the brand in having strong exclusives,’ said Layden, joking that a Super Mario game on PlayStation would be the sign of the apocalypse.
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He also pointed out that exclusive games allow developers to ‘push every lever to 11’ since they can prioritise on taking full advantage of one piece of hardware’s capabilities.
It’s far too early to tell how consoles will fare in 2026. The launch of GTA 6 is expected to be massive so it’s bound to boost PlayStation 5 sales. It is coming to Xbox Series X too, but with how badly that console’s been selling, it’s not going to be most peoples’ first choice of platform for GTA 6.
2026 will also see the launch of the Steam Machine, Valve’s second crack at breaking into the console market. It’s really more of a PC in console clothing but depending on how that goes, it could shake things up in a big way. Especially if claims of Half-Life 3 being a launch title prove accurate.
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