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 risks in this investment.
Yoshida's comments follow 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 12 weeks—other titles faced cancellations or disastrous launches.
Concord stands as a significant setback, lasting mere weeks before being shut down due to extremely low player numbers. Sony ultimately cancelled the game and closed its developer. Reportedly costing around $200 million (a figure that, according to Kotaku, didn't fully cover development, IP rights, or the acquisition of Firewalk Studios), Concord's 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 (Days Gone developers).
Yoshida, who recently left Sony after 31 years, explained his perspective in the Kinda Funny Games interview. He stated that if he were current SIE Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst, he would have pushed back against the live-service strategy when it emerged.
“Managing the budget, I was responsible for allocating funds to different game types,” Yoshida said. “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 more resources. They didn't stop single-player game development; instead, they added resources for live-service games, essentially saying, ‘Keep making these great single-player games, and we’ll support your efforts in live service.’ They knew the risk; success in this competitive genre is unlikely. But they provided the resources to try. Helldivers 2’s unexpected success highlights the unpredictability of the industry. If I were Hermen, I probably would 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 and Concord. Regarding Concord, Totoki cited the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations.
Totoki also pointed to Sony's “siloed organization” and Concord's release window (close to Black Myth: Wukong) as contributing factors. He emphasized the need for improved inter-departmental collaboration and more strategic release window planning to avoid cannibalization.
Sony senior vice president for finance and IR, Sadahiko Hayakawa, further emphasized the lessons learned from both games, highlighting the intention to share these across studios, improving development management and post-launch content strategies.
Despite these setbacks, several PlayStation live-service games are still in development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.
