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

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida reveals he would have resisted Sony's controversial push into live-service gaming. Yoshida, who led SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, voiced concerns to Kinda Funny Games about the inherent risks Sony acknowledged in this investment.

This statement comes amidst a period of significant challenges for PlayStation's live-service titles. While Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, other ventures have faltered.

Concord, a notable example, became one of PlayStation's biggest failures, shutting down after a few weeks due to extremely low player numbers. The game's reported $200 million development budget, as detailed by Kotaku, didn't cover the entire development cost, IP rights, or the acquisition of Firewalk Studios.

This failure follows the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project and, recently, two unannounced live-service games—a God of War title from Bluepoint and another from Bend Studio (Days Gone developers).

Yoshida, departing Sony after 31 years, expressed in his Kinda Funny Games interview that, were he in Hermen Hulst's (current SIE Studio Business Group CEO) position, he would have resisted the live-service push. He highlighted the resource allocation dilemma: diverting funds from established franchises like God of War to potentially risky live-service projects.

While acknowledging Sony's increased investment in live-service games after his departure, Yoshida emphasized the inherent risk and low probability of success in this competitive market. He praised Sony's approach of providing resources to explore live service while maintaining single-player development, citing Helldivers 2's unexpected success as an example of the unpredictability of the industry. He speculates that his resistance to this direction might have contributed to his departure.

Sony's financial call further illuminated this issue. Hiroki Totoki (Sony president, COO, and CFO) discussed lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's triumph and Concord's failure, emphasizing the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations. He also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window near Black Myth: Wukong, potentially leading to market cannibalization.

Sadahiko Hayakawa (Sony senior vice president for finance and IR) compared the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, highlighting the shared lessons learned across studios, particularly concerning development management and post-launch content. He confirmed Sony's intention to balance its portfolio with both single-player titles (leveraging proven IP) and live-service games, acknowledging the latter's inherent risk.

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