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, President of SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, told Kinda Funny Games that Sony acknowledged the inherent risk in this investment.

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

Sony's *Concord* stands as a major setback, lasting mere weeks before being shut down due to extremely low player numbers. The game's developer was subsequently closed, representing a significant financial loss; Kotaku reported an initial development investment of approximately $200 million, a sum insufficient to fully fund development, acquisition of IP rights, or Firewalk Studios itself.

This followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's *The Last of Us* multiplayer game and, more recently, two unannounced live-service titles—a *God of War* project at Bluepoint and another at Bend Studio (creators of *Days Gone*). Yoshida, departing Sony after 31 years, shared his perspective in the Kinda Funny Games interview, stating that if he were current SIE Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst, he would have pushed back against the live-service strategy.

“Managing the budget, I was responsible for allocating funds to different game types,” Yoshida explained. “If the company considered that direction, diverting resources from another *God of War* or single-player title to solely focus on live-service games wouldn't have made sense.”

He continued, “However, after I left and Hermen took over, the company provided significantly more resources. They didn't halt single-player development; instead, they added resources for live-service games, acknowledging the risk. The chance of success in this competitive genre is low, yet they provided the resources to try. I think that's great, and hopefully, some games will succeed. *Helldivers 2*'s success was unexpected, highlighting the unpredictability of this industry. If I were Hermen, I'd likely have resisted that direction. Maybe that's why they removed me!”

In a recent financial call, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, Hiroki Totoki, acknowledged lessons learned from both *Helldivers 2*'s success and *Concord*'s failure. Regarding *Concord*, he cited the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations. He also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and *Concord*'s release window, possibly causing market cannibalization due to its proximity to *Black Myth: Wukong*'s launch.

Sony senior vice president for finance and IR, Sadahiko Hayakawa, compared the launches of *Helldivers 2* and *Concord*, emphasizing the sharing of lessons learned across studios to improve development management and post-launch content strategies. He highlighted a future portfolio balancing the predictability of single-player titles with the riskier, but potentially higher-reward, live-service games.

Several PlayStation live-service games remain in development, including Bungie's *Marathon*, Guerrilla's *Horizon Online*, and Haven Studio's *Fairgame*.