Shawn Layden Recalls Losing Tomb Raider to Sega Saturn in Japan
Former Sony boss Shawn Layden recently shared a story about his experience with the Tomb Raider franchise and its debut in Japan on the Sega Saturn, a moment that still bothers him to this day.
Layden, who spent 32 years at Sony and concluded his time as the chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios in 2019, opened up to Eurogamer during their PlayStation 30th Anniversary coverage. When asked about moments of professional jealousy, Layden recounted a time when he tried to secure Tomb Raider for the Japanese market but ultimately lost it to Sega for a brief period.
“I wanted to get Tomb Raider for the Japanese market,” Layden explained. “I wanted it to be on PlayStation. And I saw Jeremy Heath-Smith and Adrian Smith, founders of original Tomb Raider developer Core Design, and we talked about it. They were really excited about the concept, but they ended up signing to bring it out on Sega Saturn. Sega?! And then shortly after, they did release it on PlayStation in Japan, but it initially launched on Saturn. And yeah, that always felt… What could I have done to have actually gotten it? But I came that close.”
Tomb Raider was simultaneously released on PlayStation and Saturn in North America, but in other countries, it first appeared on Saturn and remained exclusive to the platform in Japan for nearly a month.
Despite the game finding success on PlayStation as well, it is worth noting that Tomb Raider was originally intended to be a PlayStation game. Ken Kutaragi, often referred to as “the father of PlayStation,” had demoed Sony’s first console to Core Design’s Jeremy Heath-Smith in the early 1990s. Therefore, Sony also holds a significant claim to the legacy of Tomb Raider. However, for Layden, the fact that the franchise’s debut in Japan belonged to Sega still lingers in his mind.