PlayStation Legend Shuhei Yoshida 'Would've Tried to Resist' Sony's Live Service Push

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has expressed his reservations about Sony’s controversial shift towards live service video games. In a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, Yoshida, who served as President of SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, revealed that Sony was well aware of the risks associated with investing heavily in live service games.

Yoshida's comments come at a critical juncture for PlayStation's live service initiatives. While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks and becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game to date, other titles in the live service genre have faced significant challenges. Sony's Concord, for instance, turned out to be one of the most significant flops in PlayStation history, surviving only a few weeks due to dismal player engagement before being discontinued entirely. The development costs for Concord were reported by Kotaku to be around $200 million, excluding the cost of acquiring the IP rights and Firewalk Studios.

The failure of Concord followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project. Additionally, Sony recently canceled two other unannounced live service games—one being a God of War title developed by Bluepoint and another from the team behind Days Gone at Bend Studio.

Reflecting on his tenure at Sony, Yoshida, who left the company after 31 years, indicated that he would have resisted the push towards live service games if he were in the position of current Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst. He emphasized the importance of balancing investments between live service games and traditional single-player titles, suggesting that Sony should not have shifted all resources away from successful franchises like God of War.

Yoshida acknowledged that under Hulst's leadership, Sony provided additional resources to explore live service games while continuing to support single-player projects. He noted the unpredictable nature of the gaming industry, citing the unexpected success of Helldivers 2 as an example of how unpredictable success can be. Despite his reservations, Yoshida expressed hope that Sony's strategy could eventually yield positive results.

In a financial call, Sony president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki discussed the lessons learned from both Helldivers 2 and Concord. He admitted that Sony should have implemented earlier development checkpoints, such as user testing and internal evaluations, to identify and address Concord's issues before its launch. Totoki also highlighted organizational challenges and the timing of Concord's release, which coincided with the launch of the successful Black Myth: Wukong, potentially leading to market cannibalization.

Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa compared the contrasting fortunes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, emphasizing the company's intent to share the lessons learned across its studios. Hayakawa stressed the importance of enhancing development management and post-launch content expansion to build a robust portfolio that includes both single-player and live service games.

Looking ahead, Sony continues to develop several live service games, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$. These projects reflect Sony's ongoing commitment to exploring the live service model despite recent setbacks.