Shuhei Yoshida, a former PlayStation executive and President of SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, has expressed his reservations about Sony's controversial push into live service video games. In a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, Yoshida revealed that Sony was well aware of the risks associated with investing heavily in live service games.
His comments come at a time when PlayStation's live service ventures are experiencing mixed results. While Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks and becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time, other titles have struggled significantly. Sony's Concord faced a disastrous launch and was quickly taken offline due to low player engagement, eventually leading Sony to cancel the game and shut down its developer.
The failure of Concord was particularly costly, with an initial development budget of around $200 million according to Kotaku. This amount did not cover the full development costs or the acquisition of the Concord IP rights and Firewalk Studios. This setback followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game, and Sony has reportedly canceled two more unannounced live service titles, one from Bluepoint and another from Bend Studio, the developers behind Days Gone.
Yoshida, who recently left Sony after 31 years with the company, suggested that if he had been in the position of Hermen Hulst, the current CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group, he would have resisted the shift towards live service games. He explained that during his tenure, he managed budgets and allocated funds primarily to single-player titles like God of War. Yoshida noted that when Hulst took over, Sony provided additional resources to explore live service games without halting production of their successful single-player franchises.
“I’m sure they knew it was risky,” Yoshida stated, acknowledging the competitive nature of the live service genre and the slim chances of achieving success. He expressed hope that Sony's strategy would eventually pay off, citing the unexpected success of Helldivers 2 as a positive example of the unpredictable nature of the gaming industry.
In a recent financial call, Sony's president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki discussed the lessons learned from the contrasting launches of Helldivers 2 and Concord. Totoki admitted that Sony should have implemented development gates such as user testing and internal evaluations much earlier in the process for Concord. He emphasized the need for earlier intervention to improve the game before its release.
Totoki also highlighted Sony's organizational structure, describing it as "siloed," which he believes hindered smoother development and sales processes. He pointed out that Concord's release timing, shortly after the successful launch of Black Myth: Wukong, may have led to market cannibalization. Going forward, Totoki stressed the importance of selecting optimal release windows to avoid such issues and maximize performance.
Sony's senior vice president for finance and IR, Sadahiko Hayakawa, echoed these sentiments, comparing the launches of Helldivers 2 and Concord. He emphasized the company's intention to share the lessons learned across its studios to strengthen development management and improve post-launch content strategies.
Looking ahead, Sony continues to have several live service games in development, including Bungie’s Marathon, Guerrilla’s Horizon Online, and Haven Studio’s Fairgame$. The company aims to balance its portfolio between its proven single-player IPs and the riskier live service ventures, hoping to capitalize on the successes and mitigate the failures of its recent endeavors.
