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 live-service game push. Yoshida, SIE Worldwide Studios President (2008-2019), expressed concerns to Kinda Funny Games about Sony's risky live-service investments.

This statement follows a turbulent period for PlayStation's live-service titles. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success (12 million copies sold in 12 weeks), other ventures like Concord failed spectacularly, shutting down after a short period due to extremely low player numbers. The Concord failure, costing Sony an estimated $200 million (according to Kotaku), followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer and two more recent unannounced live-service game cancellations.

Yoshida, departing Sony after 31 years, hypothetically stated that, if in Hermen Hulst's current position, he would have resisted the live-service push. He emphasized the financial responsibility of allocating resources, suggesting that diverting funds from established single-player franchises like God of War to potentially unsuccessful live-service games was unwise. He acknowledged Sony's increased investment in live-service games after his departure, stating that the company likely understood the inherent risk but provided resources to explore the genre.

Sony's financial call further highlighted the lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's failure. President, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki cited the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations, suggesting that Concord's issues should have been addressed earlier in development. He also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's release window (close to Black Myth: Wukong) as contributing factors.

Senior vice president Sadahiko Hayakawa emphasized the lessons learned from both games, promising to share this knowledge across studios to improve development management and post-launch content. Sony plans a balanced portfolio, combining its strong single-player titles with live-service games, acknowledging the inherent risk in the latter.

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