Layden's departure was announced suddenly via Twitter.

PlayStation Worldwide Studios boss Shawn Layden is "departing" from the studio according to a new tweet sent out by Sony.

This announcement seems to have come rather suddenly and with little to nothing in the way of foreshadowing. Layden was with Sony for over 30 years. He began in 1987 working in public relations for the tech giant. He then moved on to be an assistant to Sony co-founder Akio Morito for a number of years.

Shawn Layden then managed an international software dev team at Sony Computer Entertainment's London Studio until 1999. After that he was made Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. In October 2007 Layden became the President of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. In 2010 he was one of the founders of Sony Network Entertainment International. In 2014 he replaced Jack Tretton as the President and CEO of SCEA. In March of 2018 Layden narrowed his focus to that of Worldwide Studios.

Cut to September 2019 where it was announced that Layden is parting ways from the company he spent over 30 years with.

You will probably be most familiar with Layden for his appearances at Sony's major trade show events. He made showings at Sony's E3 conferences from 2014 through 2018. He also appeared on stage at The Game Awards alongside Xbox's Phil Spencer and Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime. Fils-Aime himself having retired from Nintendo just earlier this year.