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 gaming. Yoshida, President of SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, told Kinda Funny Games that Sony acknowledged the inherent risk in this investment.

Yoshida's comments follow a turbulent period for PlayStation's live-service titles. While Helldivers 2, from Arrowhead, achieved remarkable success—becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever with 12 million copies sold in 12 weeks—other ventures faltered. Concord, for example, stands as a major setback, lasting only weeks before being shut down due to extremely low player numbers, resulting in significant financial losses. Kotaku reported the initial development deal for Concord was approximately $200 million, insufficient to cover the entire development and excluding IP rights and studio acquisition costs.

This failure follows the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer game and, more recently, two unannounced live-service titles—a God of War project from Bluepoint and another from Bend Studio (Days Gone developers). Yoshida, departing Sony after 31 years, stated in his Kinda Funny Games interview that, were he in Hermen Hulst's (current Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO) position, he would have resisted the live-service push.

Yoshida explained his budgetary concerns, highlighting the potential misallocation of funds away from established franchises like God of War. He noted that while Sony provided additional resources after his departure, the risk of success in the competitive live-service market remained significant. He acknowledged the unexpected success of Helldivers 2, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of the industry, and ultimately suggesting his differing approach may have contributed to his departure.

In a recent financial call, Sony's Hiroki Totoki (President, COO, and CFO) admitted lessons learned from both Helldivers 2 and Concord. He highlighted the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations for Concord, pointing to a "siloed organization" and an unfortunate release window near Black Myth: Wukong as contributing factors to its failure. Totoki emphasized the need for improved inter-departmental collaboration and strategic release window planning to avoid cannibalization.

Sadahiko Hayakawa (Sony senior vice president for finance and IR) further compared the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, stating that lessons learned would be implemented across studios, improving development management and post-launch content strategies. He highlighted the intent to balance the predictable success of single-player titles with the riskier, yet potentially high-reward, live-service games.

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