Legendary PlayStation Exec Opposes Live Services Model

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

This statement comes amidst significant challenges for PlayStation's live-service titles. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, other projects faced cancellation or disastrous launches.

Concord, in particular, stands as a major setback, lasting mere weeks before being shut down due to extremely low player numbers. This resulted in a substantial financial loss for Sony; Kotaku reported an initial investment of approximately $200 million, a sum insufficient to cover the entire development and excluding IP rights or the acquisition of Firewalk Studios.

This failure 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 from Bluepoint and another from Bend Studio (creators of Days Gone).

Yoshida, departing Sony after 31 years, stated in the Kinda Funny Games interview that, were he in Hermen Hulst's current position, he would have resisted the live-service strategy. He highlighted the allocation of resources, suggesting that diverting funds from established single-player franchises like God of War to live-service games was a questionable decision. He clarified that Sony provided increased resources after his departure, allowing for parallel development of both genres.

Yoshida acknowledged the inherent risks and low probability of success in the highly competitive live-service market. While celebrating Helldivers 2's unexpected triumph, he emphasized the unpredictable nature of the industry and expressed hope for the overall strategy's eventual success. He speculated that his resistance to this direction might have contributed to his departure.

Sony's financial call offered further insight. President, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki discussed lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's failure, highlighting the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations. He cited Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's release window, potentially leading to market cannibalization with the launch of Black Myth: Wukong, as contributing factors.

Senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the shared learning experience across studios and the intent to balance single-player titles (with their proven track record) and riskier live-service ventures in future development strategies.

Several PlayStation live-service games are still under development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.