Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida reveals he would have resisted Sony's controversial push into live-service gaming. Yoshida, SIE Worldwide Studios president from 2008-2019, voiced 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 (12 million copies in 12 weeks), other ventures have faltered. Concord, for instance, proved a major setback, shutting down after a short period due to extremely low player numbers. The game, according to a Kotaku report, cost approximately $200 million to develop, a sum that didn't fully cover development, IP rights, or the acquisition of Firewalk Studios.
This failure follows the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project and, recently, two unannounced live-service games—a God of War title from Bluepoint and another from Bend Studio (creators of Days Gone).
In his Kinda Funny Games interview, Yoshida, who recently departed Sony after 31 years, stated that if he were in Hermen Hulst's (current SIE Studio Business Group CEO) position, he would have resisted the live-service push. He explained his budgetary responsibilities and the potential conflict between investing heavily in live-service games versus continuing development of successful single-player franchises like God of War.
Yoshida acknowledged Sony's increased resource allocation post-his departure, allowing for parallel development of both single-player and live-service games. He recognized the inherent risk and the low probability of success in the competitive live-service market. While celebrating Helldivers 2's unexpected triumph, he admitted that, personally, he would have pursued a different strategy.
Sony's financial call offered further insight. Hiroki Totoki (president, COO, and CFO) admitted to lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's failure, emphasizing the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations. He cited a "siloed organization" and Concord's release window (close to Black Myth: Wukong) as contributing factors to the game's poor performance.
Sadahiko Hayakawa (senior vice president for finance and IR) further highlighted the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, emphasizing the sharing of lessons learned across studios to improve development management and post-launch content strategies. Future plans include a balanced portfolio of single-player titles (leveraging established IPs) and live-service games, acknowledging the inherent risks of the latter.
Several PlayStation live-service games remain in development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.
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