PlayStation Legend Shuhei Yoshida 'Would've Tried to Resist' Sony's Live Service Push

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida revealed he would have resisted Sony's controversial push into live-service games. Yoshida, President of SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, told Kinda Funny Games that Sony acknowledged the inherent risk in this investment.

His comments arrive amidst a turbulent period for PlayStation's live-service ventures. While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, other titles faced cancellation or disastrous launches.

Concord stands as a significant setback, lasting mere weeks before being shut down due to extremely low player numbers. Sony subsequently cancelled the game and closed its developer. This proved a costly failure, with Kotaku reporting an initial development deal of approximately $200 million—a sum insufficient to fully fund development, excluding IP rights and the acquisition of Firewalk Studios itself.

This followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer game and, recently, two more unannounced live-service titles—a God of War project at Bluepoint and another at Bend Studio (Days Gone developers).

Yoshida, departing Sony after 31 years, discussed PlayStation's live-service strategy in his interview. He stated that if he were current CEO Hermen Hulst, he would have pushed back against this direction early on. He explained his budgetary concerns, highlighting the potential misallocation of funds away from successful single-player franchises like God of War.

He acknowledged that Sony provided increased resources after his departure, allowing for concurrent development of single-player and live-service titles. While acknowledging the inherent risk and low probability of success in a competitive market, Yoshida praised Sony's approach, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of the industry and the success of Helldivers 2 as an example. He speculated that his resistance to this strategy might have contributed to his departure.

Sony's president, COO, and CFO, Hiroki Totoki, in a recent financial call, discussed lessons learned from both Helldivers 2 and Concord's contrasting outcomes. He pointed to the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluation in Concord's development, highlighting the importance of proactive issue identification. He also cited Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's release window (close to Black Myth: Wukong) as contributing factors.

Sony senior vice president for finance and IR, Sadahiko Hayakawa, compared the two launches, emphasizing the sharing of lessons learned across studios to improve development management and post-launch content strategies, aiming for a balanced portfolio of single-player and live-service titles.

Several PlayStation live-service games remain in development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.