The tweet was released on 30 September with no explanation on the reason for his departure.
Layden, who had been the face of PlayStation at many E3 Conferences, has served at Sony since 1987 and oversaw many PlayStation launches while working in various departments within Sony. While Layden had not been directly involved with successful launches such as The Last Guardian and Marvel's Spider-Man, these hits did indeed happen under his watch.
It is with great emotion that we announce that Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden will be departing SIE. His visionary leadership will be greatly missed. We wish him success in future endeavors and are deeply grateful for his years of service. Thanks for everything, Shawn!
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) 30 September 2019
SIE Worldwide Studios is a single internal entity that oversees all development studios within SIE. Long-time PlaySation partner Insomniac Games was one that was acquired under Layden’s tenure earlier this year.
It is unclear on who will be filling Layden's big shoes in the company, as reported by gameindustry.biz. While neither Layden's twitter or LinkedIn account mentions his departure, regardless, we know that his presence in Sony will be deeply missed.
