PlayStation Icon Discusses Resistance to Live Service Model

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida reveals he would have resisted Sony's controversial push into live-service games. Yoshida, who led SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, expressed concerns to Kinda Funny Games about the inherent risks involved in Sony's live-service investments.

This statement comes at a challenging time for PlayStation's live-service titles. While Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever with 12 million copies sold in just 12 weeks, other ventures have faltered.

Concord, a significant setback for PlayStation, lasted only a few weeks before being shut down due to extremely low player numbers. The game's development, costing approximately $200 million according to Kotaku, proved a substantial financial loss for Sony, a figure that reportedly didn't even cover the full development cost or IP rights acquisition.

This failure follows 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 at Bluepoint and another at Bend Studio (Days Gone developers).

Yoshida, departing Sony after 31 years, shared his perspective in the Kinda Funny Games interview, suggesting that he would have challenged the live-service strategy had he been in Hermen Hulst's current position. He highlighted the resource allocation dilemma, questioning the prioritization of live-service games over established franchises like God of War.

While acknowledging Sony's increased investment in live-service development under Hulst's leadership, Yoshida emphasized the inherent risks and low probability of success in a highly competitive market. He praised the success of Helldivers 2 as an unpredictable outlier, highlighting the inherent uncertainty in the industry.

Sony's financial call offered further insight. Hiroki Totoki, president, COO, and CFO, admitted to lessons learned from both Helldivers 2's success and Concord's failure, emphasizing the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluations. Totoki also cited Sony's "siloed organization" and Concord's unfortunate release window near Black Myth: Wukong as contributing factors to its downfall.

Sadahiko Hayakawa, senior vice president for finance and IR, further underscored the contrasting outcomes of Helldivers 2 and Concord, highlighting the importance of sharing lessons learned across studios to improve development and post-launch content management. He emphasized a future portfolio balancing Sony's successful single-player titles with strategic live-service ventures.

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