PlayStation Shuhei Yoshida 'opposed' Sony's Live-Service Push

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida reveals he would have resisted Sony's controversial live service game push, citing inherent risks. Yoshida, SIE Worldwide Studios president from 2008 to 2019, expressed concerns to Kinda Funny Games about Sony's substantial investment in a highly competitive market.

This statement follows 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, other ventures experienced cancellations or disastrous launches. Concord, in particular, stands as a major setback, shutting down after a mere few weeks due to extremely low player numbers. The project, reportedly costing around $200 million (according to Kotaku), proved a costly failure for Sony, exceeding the initial budget and not including IP rights acquisition.

Further compounding the issue, Sony canceled Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer game and, 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, hypothetically positioned himself as current CEO Hermen Hulst, stating he would have advocated against the live service push. He emphasized the allocation of resources, suggesting that focusing heavily on live service games at the expense of established franchises like God of War was a questionable strategy. While acknowledging Sony's increased resource allocation under Hulst's leadership, Yoshida maintained his belief in the inherent risk and low probability of success in the competitive live service landscape. He highlighted Helldivers 2's unexpected success as evidence of the unpredictability within the industry.

Sony's financial call echoed these sentiments. President, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki acknowledged lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's triumph and Concord's failure, specifically citing the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations. Totoki also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window near Black Myth: Wukong, potentially leading to market cannibalization, as contributing factors.

Senior vice president Sadahiko Hayakawa further emphasized the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, highlighting the shared lessons learned across studios, focusing on improved development management and post-launch content strategies. He emphasized a future portfolio balancing Sony's strengths in single-player titles with calculated risks in the live service sector.

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