Former Sony Exec Shawn Layden Floats a Unified Gaming Format Consortium to Break the Console Install Base Ceiling

Shawn Layden, the former Chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios who retired in 2019 after 32 years at Sony, is once again pushing an industry level idea aimed at expanding the console market beyond what he describes as a long running sales ceiling.

In a 47 minute video interview with Naomi Kyle and Pause for Thought, Layden argues that the discrete console install base per generation has not grown meaningfully across the last several cycles, hovering around 250 million units when you add up the major platforms. He points out the Wii era as the notable outlier, when the generation pushed closer to 300 million thanks to non traditional audiences being pulled in by a different kind of pitch, then he frames that moment as an anomaly rather than a permanent expansion.

Layden’s proposed unlock is a format strategy, not a silicon strategy. He suggests the creation of a consortium model similar to what the consumer electronics industry used for VHS, compact disc, DVD, and Blu ray, where a standard is established and then licensed broadly so multiple manufacturers can build compatible devices. His argument is that VHS beat Betamax primarily because VHS licensed its format across many manufacturers, while Sony held tight control over Betamax, limiting ubiquity and weakening the network effect of shared media ownership.

He applies the same logic to consoles: if platform holders and industry partners could align behind a unified gaming format, then license it so more manufacturers can build hardware that plays the same software catalog, the industry could finally break past the current containment field where each generation caps out at roughly the same number of boxed console buyers. Layden even floats a technical direction that could be anchored closer to PC foundations, mentioning a Linux kernel style approach as one possible baseline, with the business layer handled through licensing programs and compliance standards rather than closed ecosystems.

From a market strategy lens, the thesis is straightforward: widen hardware availability, reduce friction, and let manufacturers compete on device differentiation while creators ship into a larger standardized install base. That is how you get to toaster level ubiquity, as Layden frames it, where the device category becomes normalized and broadly accessible rather than a specialized purchase tied to a single brand ecosystem.

The immediate friction point is equally clear. A unified format is a direct threat to the exclusivity driven playbook that has powered the modern console era. Microsoft has already been signaling a direction that prioritizes being everywhere the user is, and Sony has been expanding PC releases even if later than fans would prefer, but Nintendo remains the most platform exclusive by design, with limited incentive to give up hardware level differentiation. That makes Layden’s idea less of a near term prediction and more of a strategic thought experiment that challenges the industry to decide whether growth is best achieved through tighter walls or broader licensing.

For gamers, the upside is obvious: one library across more boxes, more competition in hardware pricing, and potentially faster adoption of new device form factors. The risk is also obvious: standardization can slow creative platform innovation if the consortium becomes too rigid, and it could reshape first party identity in ways that change what players expect from flagship ecosystems.

Layden’s proposal is not a roadmap announcement from Sony or any platform holder, but it is a high signal framing of the core problem the console business keeps circling: the software market grows, the audience definition expands, but the number of people willing to buy a dedicated console has not scaled at the same rate. If the industry wants a bigger ceiling, Layden is betting it will take a VHS level decision, not another incremental hardware refresh.

If a unified gaming format meant cheaper hardware and a shared library, would you support it even if it reduced traditional exclusives, or do exclusives still matter more than market expansion?