PlayStation Head Yoshida Resists Sony's Live Service Influence

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

This statement comes amidst 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 project, initially budgeted at approximately $200 million (according to Kotaku), proved a costly setback for Sony, with the budget insufficient to cover the full development, IP rights, or acquisition of Firewalk Studios. This followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer game and, recently, two unannounced live-service titles – a God of War game from Bluepoint and another from Bend Studio (Days Gone developers).

Yoshida, departing Sony after 31 years, hypothetically stated that, as CEO Hermen Hulst, he would have resisted the live-service push. He highlighted the resource allocation dilemma: diverting funds from established franchises like God of War to a high-risk genre. However, he acknowledged Sony's approach of providing additional resources alongside continued single-player game development. He emphasized the unpredictable nature of success in the industry, citing Helldivers 2's unexpected triumph.

Sony's financial call further illuminated the situation. President, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki acknowledged lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's failure, specifically highlighting the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations to identify and address issues before launch. Totoki also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window, potentially leading to market cannibalization with the release of Black Myth: Wukong.

Senior vice president Sadahiko Hayakawa compared the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, emphasizing the sharing of lessons learned across studios to improve development management and post-launch content expansion. He affirmed Sony's intent to balance its portfolio with both single-player titles (leveraging established IP) and live-service games, acknowledging the inherent risks of the latter.

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