Shuhei Yoshida Resisted Sony's Live Service Shift

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Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has revealed he would have resisted Sony’s aggressive shift toward live service games had he still been in a leadership role.

Yoshida, who served as President of SIE Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment from 2008 to 2019, shared his thoughts during an interview with Kinda Funny Games. He acknowledged that Sony was well aware of the risks involved in pursuing live service titles but emphasized that such a strategy might not align with his own approach.

His remarks come at a challenging time for PlayStation's live service efforts. While Arrowhead Game Studios' Helldivers 2 became a major success—selling 12 million copies within just 12 weeks—other live service titles have either been canceled or faced critical and commercial failure.

Sony’s Concord stands out as one of the most notable disappointments in PlayStation history. Launched to minimal player engagement, the game was taken offline within weeks and eventually canceled entirely. The project also resulted in the closure of developer Firewalk Studios. According to a report by [ttpp], initial development funding for Concord was estimated at $200 million—though this figure reportedly did not cover the full development cycle, nor did it include the purchase of the IP or the studio itself.

The failure of Concord followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog’s multiplayer The Last of Us title and, more recently, two unannounced live service projects—one being a God of War title at Bluepoint Games and another in development at Bend Studio, the team behind Days Gone.

Reflecting on Sony’s current direction, Yoshida stated that if he were in Hermen Hulst’s position—as the current head of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group—he would have pushed back against the live service model when it first emerged.

“I was responsible for budget allocation,” Yoshida explained. “If the company was considering shifting focus, it wouldn’t have made sense to stop making another God of War or single-player game and invest everything into live service titles.”

He added that under Hulst’s leadership, Sony appears to be taking a dual approach: continuing to develop high-quality single-player experiences while also investing additional resources into live service experimentation.

“They knew it was risky,” Yoshida continued. “The chances of success in such a competitive space are low, but the company gave Hermen the chance to try. In my mind, that’s great—and I hope some games become successful.”

Despite Concord's failure, there was a bright spot with Helldivers 2, which exceeded all expectations. Yoshida noted that unpredictability is part of what makes the gaming industry exciting.

“If I were in Hermen’s position, I probably would’ve resisted that direction. Maybe that’s one reason they moved me out of first-party!” he joked.

In a recent financial call, Sony president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki admitted the company had learned key lessons from both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's collapse.

“With regards to Concord, we should have implemented development gates—like user testing or internal evaluation—much earlier than we did,” Totoki said.

He acknowledged that Sony is still refining its processes, especially concerning new IP development.

“Of course, you can’t know the outcome until you try, so we need to introduce more checkpoints throughout development and move them forward in the timeline,” Totoki added.

He also pointed to organizational challenges within Sony, noting that a "siloed" structure may have contributed to Concord's poor performance. Its release in August coincided with the launch of Black Myth: Wukong on PS5 and PC—a timing decision that may have hurt visibility.

“We need to better coordinate across departments and choose optimal release windows to avoid cannibalization and maximize each title’s potential,” Totoki said.

During the same earnings call, Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa compared the outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, stating that insights from both will be integrated across the organization.

“We launched two live service games this year—Helldivers 2 was a huge hit, while Concord ended up being shut down,” Hayakawa said. “We gained valuable experience from both successes and failures.”

He added that these learnings will be applied broadly, particularly in areas like title development management, content expansion, and post-launch scaling.

Looking ahead, Sony continues to develop several live service titles, including Bungie’s Marathon, Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Online, and Haven Studio’s Fairgame$.