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Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has criticized Xbox leadership for recent moves that have been made at the company. Over the past few days, Xbox has been in a very precarious position. This is primarily due to a “reset” that current Xbox head Asha Sharma announced last week, which may ultimately result in the closure of studios like Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory. Now, in the wake of so many concerns coming about with Xbox and its future, Layden has chimed in with what he thinks the biggest problems are for the gaming giant.
In response to a post on social media, Layden said that he doesn’t believe those in charge at Xbox have an understanding of how the gaming industry works. Layden stressed that he’s not trying to be a “hater” of what’s happening at Xbox, but merely suggested that those making decisions within the company don’t have a concrete plan of what they’re doing. As a result, it has led to much of the disarray that has been seen lately.
“At the risk of sounding like a ‘hater’ (which, I’m really not) the moves evince a basic misunderstanding of how the interactive entertainment world moves,” Layden wrote. “If you know you, know, which also means if you don’t, you don’t.”
Although Layden hasn’t been with PlayStation since 2019, he led the company through one of its most successful periods in history. From 2014 until 2019, Layden served as the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios. This span, which consisted of the majority of the PS4 generation, saw PlayStation greatly bounce back from its rough stretch in the PS3 era as it shipped games like God of War, Bloodborne, Horizon Zero Dawn, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and countless others.
Because of his successful past, Layden has shown that he clearly has an understanding of what audiences want. For him to criticize Xbox in this manner carries some serious weight with it and suggests that he could be correct in his conclusion.
For now, it sounds like things might continue to get worse at Xbox before they get better. Layoffs and massive overhauls at Xbox are expected to happen over the coming days and weeks, which could result in some drastic changes to the Xbox ecosystem. Despite this, Xbox still seems to have a strong games lineup on paper in the remainder of 2026, as it is gearing up to release titles like Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-Day, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.
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[H/T GamesRadar]
