Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida reveals he would have resisted Sony's controversial live-service game strategy. Yoshida, SIE Worldwide Studios president from 2008-2019, expressed concerns to Kinda Funny Games about the inherent risks Sony acknowledged in this investment.

This statement comes amidst significant challenges for PlayStation's live-service titles. While Helldivers 2 achieved phenomenal success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever (12 million copies in 12 weeks), other ventures experienced cancellations or disastrous launches.

Concord, a particularly notable failure, lasted mere weeks before being shut down due to extremely low player counts. This resulted in the complete cancellation of the game and the closure of its developer, representing a substantial financial loss (reportedly around $200 million, according to Kotaku, a figure which didn't cover full development or IP rights). This followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project and, recently, two more unannounced live-service games – a God of War title from Bluepoint and another from Bend Studio (Days Gone developers).

Yoshida, departing Sony after 31 years, stated in his interview that, were he in Hermen Hulst's (current SIE Studio Business Group CEO) position, he would have resisted the live-service push. He highlighted the resource allocation dilemma: diverting funds from established single-player franchises like God of War to a high-risk genre. He acknowledged Sony's increased investment post-his departure, providing additional resources for live-service development alongside continued single-player projects. He emphasized the inherent risk and low probability of success in a highly competitive market. While Helldivers 2's unexpected success proves planning such outcomes is impossible, he still believes he would have advocated a different approach, suggesting this might have contributed to his departure.

Sony's financial call echoed these sentiments. President, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki cited lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's failure, emphasizing the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations to identify and address issues before launch. Totoki also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's release window (close to Black Myth: Wukong) as contributing factors to the game's poor performance.

Senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa further highlighted the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, emphasizing the sharing of lessons learned across studios to improve development management and post-launch content strategies. The future strategy involves a balanced portfolio combining Sony's strengths in single-player titles with continued, albeit risk-aware, exploration of the live-service market.

Several PlayStation live-service games remain under development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.