Sony has announced that Shawn Layden, Head of PlayStation Worldwide, is leaving the company on its official Twitter account. Shawn Layden is known to be a major part of Sony’s journey throughout the past years. He joined Sony back in 1987 and has been working as Chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios since April 2016.
Layden has been the frontman of Sony throughout its journey and we have seen him speak for the company at multiple events such as E3 presentations, The Game Awards events and many more. Layden is considered as part of the Big 3 Heads Trinity which includes Shawn Layden, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer and Nintendo’s Reggie which left Nintendo USA earlier this year as well.
With Layden leaving Sony as well, there’s only Phil left now of the trinity. It’s a shame to see two of the biggest personalities leave the video game industry in the same year. Layden was the head of PlayStation Worldwide which is considered the most important division in the company because is manages and oversees all first-party development companies which include Naughty Dog, Insomniac Studios and Sucker Punch.
It is with great emotion that we announce that Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden will be departing SIE. His visionary leadership will be greatly missed. We wish him success in future endeavors and are deeply grateful for his years of service. Thanks for everything, Shawn!
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 30, 2019
Shawn Layden played an important role in Sony’s acquisition of Insomniac Studios as well so him leaving the company could leave a vital space empty. As of now, Sony has not announced who is going to take Shawn Layden’s seat but since Shawn has been a part of Sony for so long, we just hope that whoever takes the seat, continues the tradition of churning out amazing titles as Sony has been in the past years.
Both PS3 and PS4 generations have given us some of the best console exclusives in the past years and now PS5 is about to arrive next year so this is a very crucial time for Sony. Sony has been dominating this generation in terms of exclusive titles and Sony cannot afford to lose an important figure such as Shawn Layden at this point. Neither Sony nor Shawn has revealed any details on why both are parting ways suddenly.
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