A former PlayStation executive has urged the console industry to consider a sweeping, cross-platform gaming format as a path to expanding the audience beyond the familiar 250-million-per-generation ceiling. Speaking on the Pause for Thought and Naomi Kyle YouTube channel, Shawn Layden, the former boss of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, framed the debate as a strategic inflection point for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. He argued that while the industry benefits from a broad user base, the discrete number of consoles sold per generation has remained stubbornly capped around 250 million for decades, with only a temporary spike during the Wii era when non-traditional gaming appeal pulled in a larger cohort of players. “We talk about gaming as being this $250 billion industry, which it is, and have hundreds of millions of users, which it does,” Layden said. “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. But the number of discrete consoles sold over any particular generation caps out about 250.” He pointed to the Wii era’s anomaly as a sign of what could be possible with broader appeal, but cautioned that the industry has since “flattened out,” leaving a gap to fill if the market is to grow meaningfully.
Layden’s core prescription is historical: study a past industry conflict to illuminate a path forward. He drew a direct line from Sony’s Betamax to VHS in the videotape format war, where the winning factor was licensing breadth rather than the narrow advantage of one format’s technical edge. “Betamax lost to VHS for one reason only: that VHS licensed its format across many different manufacturers,” he explained. The anecdote echoed through the discussion as Layden extended the analogy to gaming: the path to ubiquity, he argued, is not just superior technology but a broad licensing ecosystem and cross-manufacturer compatibility.
The former PlayStation executive framed the issue in terms of ecosystem design rather than device competition alone. He noted that Royalties and licensing networks—built over decades with CD, DVD, and Blu-ray—were the engines that turned those formats into everyday common standards. “People didn't understand that need of having the same machine as your neighbor,” Layden said. “You can have an RCA TV and you can have a Sony TV and you know that's all fine. But once your neighbor has picked VHS and you want to watch that tape of that movie, but you have Betamax, all of a sudden… So the industry coalesced around VHS.” He extended the parallel to optical media, then to gaming formats: Sony and Philips later collaborated to create CD, then licensed it broadly; the same pattern, he suggested, could apply to a universal gaming standard.
The idea, as Layden described it, would be a true gaming format consortium—a shared standard that allows multiple manufacturers to build compatible hardware and licensing programs so that “real numbers move.” In his framing, the model could resemble a Linux-based kernel or another open, officially supported baseline around which a diverse hardware ecosystem could emerge. The objective would be less about forcing a single hardware design and more about ensuring software interoperability across devices, thereby expanding the addressable audience beyond the conventional console-buying pool.
That prospect, however, hinges on a dramatic industry convergence. Layden acknowledged that achieving a universal gaming format would require Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to set aside some of their competitive imperatives and agree on a common governing standard. The practical reality is far from simple. Nintendo, with its tenure of first-party franchises and its distinctive hardware cycles, has historically guarded its platform identity closely. The landscape would demand not only technical agreement but also a willingness to accommodate cross-platform publishing and potentially shared development tools.
Even with a willingness to cooperate in principle, a universal gaming format would face political and commercial headwinds. Layden’s own examples of cross-platform strategy in modern practice—where Sony releases some titles on PC and even on Xbox via Helldivers 2—signal that platform holders are already testing the boundaries of exclusivity. Yet he underscored that exclusives still hold significant value. “I don't think every game has to be console exclusive. 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 like Nintendo largely — Microsoft is more of the Xbox everywhere anywhere — there is a huge value to the brand of having strong exclusives,” he said. The hypothetical scenario where Mario appears on PlayStation is treated as an apocalyptic thought experiment, highlighting how deeply ingrained platform identity is in the industry’s business model.
The discussion lands in a market where each major player remains committed to its own hardware roadmap. Sony continues to plot the inevitable PlayStation 6, while Microsoft has signaled a next-generation Xbox and a future that may blend PC and console characteristics. Nintendo has just launched the Switch 2, with the likelihood of a Switch 3 in the future. Against that backdrop, Layden’s thesis reads as a provocative counterpoint: if a unified gaming format could unlock broader participation and expand the audience, the industry would be forced to confront the paradox of competing while collaborating at a fundamental level.
The broader business case echoing through Layden’s argument is clear. A standardized gaming format could decouple software success from single-device sales, potentially broadening reach to non-traditional players who may engage with games in different ways or on different devices. It could also alter the economics of third-party publishing and licensing, enabling a larger installed base to monetize through a shared platform rather than a single-device lock-in. Yet the price of such a shift would be steep: it could dilute brand-driven exclusivity strategies, blur the lines between console identities, and require a level of industry governance that has rarely existed in console history.
The questions remain unsettled, and the industry is unlikely to move toward a one-size-fits-all format without significant concessions from each party. Still, Layden’s remarks have stirred discussion about how to sustain and grow the gaming market as a whole. If the goal is to move beyond the 250-million cap and unlock a broader, more diverse audience, the reasoning behind a consortium-based approach will resonate with executives who are watching demographic shifts, the rise of cloud gaming, and evolving consumer tastes in real time. Whether such a path becomes a reality remains to be seen, but the underlying point—that the console market may require more than hardware competition to sustain long-term growth—has gained renewed attention in industry circles.
As the conversation continues, observers will watch how closely the industry hews to Layden’s lessons from the VHS/Betamax era. If a gaming format consortium ever takes shape, it would mark a rare instance of direct collaboration among rival platform owners—an arrangement that could redefine how games are developed, published, and distributed across devices. In the immediate term, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo appear focused on their own hardware cycles, while publishers and developers navigate a shifting landscape that increasingly emphasizes cross-platform accessibility and flexible business models. The outcome of this debate could shape the next wave of console design, game strategy, and industry partnerships for years to come.
PHOTO NOTE: The industry’s current trajectory sees major players continuing to push distinct hardware ecosystems while experimenting with cross-platform releases. The debate over a shared gaming format remains hypothetical, but it is anchored in a long-running question about how to expand the audience beyond the traditional console buyer and keep the industry vibrant in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.
In the near term, the discussion invites scrutiny of where the market is headed next. Sony’s continuing investment in exclusive content, Microsoft’s hybrid PC/console approach, and Nintendo’s hardware-centric strategy all factor into whether a universal format could realistically gain traction. If the VHS lesson holds any relevance, it’s that market ubiquity often originates not only from product quality but from a broad, interoperable ecosystem that makes participation easier for both developers and players alike.
