Shuhei Yoshida resists Sony's live service push

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has revealed he would have resisted Sony's controversial shift toward live service games if he were still in a leadership position. Yoshida, who served as President of SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, told Kinda Funny Games that Sony was always aware its substantial investment in live service titles came with significant risks. His comments follow a rollercoaster period for PlayStation's live service ambitions. While Helldivers 2 from Arrowhead Games became PlayStation Studios' fastest-selling title ever with 12 million copies sold in three months, other live service projects have struggled. Sony's Concord proved particularly disastrous, shutting down mere weeks after launch due to abysmal player numbers – a failure that reportedly cost Sony $200 million in initial development alone, not including IP acquisition or studio purchase costs. This high-profile flop followed Sony's cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project and two unannounced live service games – including a God of War title from Bluepoint and another from Days Gone developer Bend Studio. In his candid interview, Yoshida explained how he might have handled Sony's strategic pivot differently: "If the company was considering [going] that way, it probably didn't make sense to stop making another God of War or single-player game, and put all the money into live service games." The former executive praised current CEO Hermen Hulst's approach of maintaining single-player development while allocating additional resources to live service experiments. "Luckily, Helldivers 2 did so well," Yoshida noted. "Nobody expected that. You can't plan success in this industry." Sony leadership has acknowledged these mixed results. During a recent financial call, COO Hiroki Totoki admitted the company should have conducted more rigorous testing earlier in Concord's development. He also cited organizational silos and poor release timing as contributing factors to the failure. Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior VP of finance, emphasized the company plans to share lessons from both successes and failures across its studios. Sony remains committed to balancing its portfolio between reliable single-player experiences and higher-risk live service titles, with projects like Marathon, Horizon Online, and Fairgame$ still in development.