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 aggressive push into live-service gaming. Yoshida, who led SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, expressed concerns to Kinda Funny Games about the inherent risks involved in Sony's live-service investments.

This statement comes amidst a period of significant challenges for PlayStation's live-service titles. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal 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 a major financial setback for Sony, lasting only a few weeks before being shut down due to extremely low player numbers. The project, initially budgeted at approximately $200 million (according to Kotaku), ultimately failed to recoup its investment, highlighting the significant financial risks associated with live-service game development. This followed 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, speculated that had he been in Hermen Hulst's current position (CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group), he would have advocated against the heavy investment in live-service games. He emphasized the importance of balancing resources between proven single-player franchises and the riskier live-service ventures. He acknowledged Sony's increased resource allocation for live-service games but suggested a more cautious approach would have been prudent.

Sony's financial reports reflect this internal assessment. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, admitted to lessons learned from both the success of Helldivers 2 and the failure of Concord. He cited the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations, suggesting that Concord's problems should have been identified and addressed much sooner in the development cycle. He also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window, possibly leading to market cannibalization with the launch of Black Myth: Wukong.

Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, further emphasized the importance of learning from both successes and failures, intending to share these lessons across their studios to improve development management and post-launch content support. He highlighted the continued focus on a balanced portfolio, combining the proven success of single-player titles with the higher-risk, higher-reward potential of live-service games.

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