Yoshida on Sony's Live Service Shift

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida revealed he would have resisted Sony's controversial push into live-service games. Yoshida, who led SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, told Kinda Funny Games that Sony acknowledged the inherent risks involved in this investment.

His comments arrive amidst a turbulent period for PlayStation's live-service ventures. While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, other live-service titles faced cancellations or disastrous launches.

Concord stands as a significant setback, a major video game failure for PlayStation. It lasted mere weeks before being shut down due to extremely low player numbers, ultimately leading to the closure of its developer. Reports from Kotaku suggest a $200 million investment, insufficient to cover development costs, IP acquisition, or the purchase of Firewalk Studios.

This failure followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer game and, recently, two more 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, shared his perspective in the Kinda Funny Games interview. He stated that, were he in Hermen Hulst's (current SIE Studio Business Group CEO) position, he would have pushed back against the live-service strategy's early adoption.

“Managing the budget, I allocated funds for game development,” Yoshida explained. “If the company leaned towards live service, diverting funds from another God of War or single-player title wouldn't have made sense. However, after I left, the company provided more resources. They didn't stop single-player game development; instead, they allocated additional resources for live-service games, acknowledging the risk involved. The success of Helldivers 2 was unexpected, highlighting the unpredictable nature of the industry. If I were in Hermen's position, I'd likely have resisted that direction.”

Sony's financial call revealed lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's failure. President, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki emphasized the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations for Concord, citing a “siloed organization” and an unfortunate release window near Black Myth: Wukong as contributing factors to the game's poor performance.

Senior vice president Sadahiko Hayakawa compared the launches, highlighting the intention to share lessons learned across studios to improve development management and post-launch content strategies, aiming for a balanced portfolio of single-player and live-service titles.

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