Former PlayStation Exec Says Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo Must Learn From VHS’s Victory Over Betamax if They Want to Truly Expand the Console Audience – IGN

Video game console sales cap out each generation at around 250 million, so how will the console manufacturers break through that barrier? By learning a crucial lesson from the videotape format war, one former PlayStation executive has suggested.

Speaking on the Pause for Thought and Naomi Kyle YouTube channel, Shawn Layden, former boss of Sony Interactive Entertainment America (SIEA), said the console video game market has hit a limit, and significant change is needed to expand beyond it.

“We talk about gaming as being this $250 billion industry, which it is, and have hundreds of millions of users, which it does,” he began. “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 million. If you line up all the PS1s, Sega Saturns, and N64s, and you go by generations, it’s all about 250. The one time it popped to…