News is admittedly slow as the industry awaits major announcements at the imminent Game Awards. But a specific interview was recently released that still gives us plenty to discuss. The website Eurogamer sat down with ex-PlayStation executive Shawn Layden for a fascinating chat about the present and future of the console space, and he had tons to say. We spend a lot of time dissecting his thoughts on topics ranging from PlayStation 6 and console agnosticism to Sony publishing on Xbox and perhaps the most important issues of all: The cost to develop increasingly long and expensive games that few people even bother to beat. Other news this week includes the shuttering of Ubisoft's beleaguered shooter XDefiant, the announcement of a blatant ripoff of Guerrilla's Horizon series called Light of Motiram, FromSoft's puzzling claim that it's not working on an Elden Ring sequel, and more. Listener inquiries help us round things out, per usual. Is Sony quietly giving PSVR2 a new push? How can Square Enix still be publishing PS1 games? Will Sony's E3 2013 'game sharing video' truly resonate throughout time? When will the audience learn that -- yes, indeed! -- you should definitely listen to our rock-solid relationship advice?

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Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00:00 - Intro

0:15:43 - Spotify Wrapped

0:32:06 - The chips in the microwave was a red flag

0:38:25 - Breakup advice

0:45:05 - Gooner rankings

0:55:07 - Joker 2

1:04:47 - The PlayStation startup returns

1:22:10 - BBC interview with Hulst and Nishino

1:43:59 - Horizon ripoff Light of Moritam

1:52:56 - Fromsoft on Elden Ring 2

2:01:17 - Xdefiant is shutting down

2:15:58 - Foamstars support ending

2:21:10 - What are we playing?

2:39:56 - Shawn Layden interview

3:41:16 - The famous "game sharing" video

3:52:10 - PSVR2's new push

4:03:07 - Picking a game for friends to play

4:11:18 - Square Enix is printing new PS1 games

4:13:12 - "Global Subscription Optimization Manager"

4:18:51 - "Take care guys"

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