Shawn Layden, the PlayStation exec who led the platform through its most successful era, said that there was some internal resistance to bringing back Ratchet and Clank on the PS4.
The iconic action-platforming duo had a minor hiatus before the PS4 was breaking records, but eventually returned with a 2016 release that served as both a reimagining of the very first game in the series and a tie-in to the big screen movie that came out that same year.
Speaking to HipHopGamer, Layden says that giving it a thumbs up wasn’t always easy. “Look, I greenlit Ratchet and Clank on the PS4, and at the time, the sales and marketing people were going, ‘No one wants to play that old game Ratchet and Clank.'”
Layden’s way of convincing the other departments was pointing at market data – “which I don’t really love too much of but this was useful” – that showed around 20% or less of PS4 gamers were even aware of Ratchet and Clank the brand. “So 80% don’t know it,” Layden said. “So, for them, it’s a new game. It’s not an old game. And great games are always great.”
Layden used the anecdote to explain why he’d still greenlight a now-niche series like Jak and Daxter. He also had some interesting things to say about other dormant PlayStation names, including The Order 1886, SOCOM, and All-Stars Battle Royale – a fighting game he reckons is “important” but didn’t live up to Smash Bros. at all at the time.
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