United Kingdom, Dec. 3 -- Former Sony Interactive Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden thinks PlayStation was "lucky and happy to have survived" the PlayStation 3 (PS3) era.

The company's third-generation console had disappointing sales after it hit the market in 2006 - reaching roughly 87.4 million units sold compared to the PlayStation 2's 160 million - and now Layden has admitted the gaming division was "lucky" to have made it through that generation and found its footing again with the PlayStation 4.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Layden - who was at the company from 1996 to 2019 - said: "PS3 was Sony's Icarus moment. We had PS1, PS2 ... and now we're building a supercomputer! And we're going to put Linux on it! And we're going to do al...