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 involved in this investment.
Yoshida's comments arrive amidst a turbulent period for PlayStation's live-service ventures. While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, other live-service titles faced cancellations or disastrous launches.
Concord stands as a significant setback, one of PlayStation's biggest video game failures. It lasted mere weeks before being shut down due to extremely low player numbers, resulting in the game's cancellation and the closure of its developer. Kotaku reported the initial development cost was approximately $200 million, a sum insufficient to cover the entire development, IP rights, or acquisition of Firewalk Studios.
This failure followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer game and, recently, two more unannounced live-service titles—a God of War project from Bluepoint and another from Bend Studio (Days Gone developers). Yoshida, who recently departed Sony after 31 years, shared his perspective in the Kinda Funny Games interview, stating he would have opposed the live-service direction if he were in Hermen Hulst's current position.
“Managing the budget, I allocated funds for game development,” Yoshida explained. “If the company considered that path, diverting resources from another God of War or single-player title to solely focus on live-service games wouldn't have made sense. However, after I left and Hermen Hulst took over, the company provided more resources. They didn't stop single-player game development; instead, they allocated additional resources for live-service games as an experiment. They knew the risk; success in this competitive genre is unlikely. Despite that, they provided the resources. It's a great approach, and hopefully, some games will succeed. Helldivers 2's success was unexpected. You can't plan success in this industry. If I were in Hermen's position, I probably would have resisted that direction. Maybe that's why they removed me!”
Sony's president, COO, and CFO, Hiroki Totoki, acknowledged lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's failure during a recent financial call. Regarding Concord, Totoki cited the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations. He pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's release window, potentially causing cannibalization with the release of Black Myth: Wukong.
Sony senior vice president for finance and IR, Sadahiko Hayakawa, further compared the launches of Helldivers 2 and Concord, emphasizing the sharing of lessons learned across studios to improve development management and post-release content expansion. The future strategy involves balancing single-player titles (with proven IP and higher predictability) and live-service games, accepting the inherent risks.
Several PlayStation live-service games remain in development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.
