Shuhei Yoshida, who recently ended a 31-year career at PlayStation, gave a deep dive into his time at the company during an interview with Kinda Funny. A big part of the conversation focused on Sony’s move into the live-service gaming market, something Yoshida admitted he would have resisted if he had still been leading before Hermen Hulst took over.

Yoshida shared that after Hulst became head of PlayStation Studios, Sony provided the team with extra resources to develop both traditional single-player games and new live-service projects.

He said the leadership knew the shift to live-service games was risky but wanted to give it a shot, acknowledging that the chances of success in such a competitive space were slim.

‘They said, “These games are great, keep doing that, and we’ll give you additional resources to work on these live-service games and try it,”’ Yoshida explained, mentioning that the company was aware of the risks but wanted to support the effort anyway.

While Yoshida appreciated the strategy and hoped for its success, he also admitted that he would have tried to steer clear of live-service games if he had remained in charge. He joked, ‘Maybe that’s one of the reasons they removed me from the first-party!’

Despite the challenges, some live-service titles have paid off, like Helldivers 2, which became a surprise hit, selling over 12 million copies. Yoshida noted, ‘You can’t plan a success in this industry,’ and expressed hope that the strategy would eventually pay off.

Sony has since reduced the number of live-service games in development but is still working on notable titles like Fairgame$ and a rumored Horizon multiplayer game. However, not every project has survived, with cancellations including a God of War game and The Last of Us Online.

During the interview, Yoshida also touched on why there’s no Bloodborne remaster, shared his thoughts on the PlayStation Vita’s failure, and expressed surprise at the lower sales of Horizon Forbidden West compared to its predecessor.

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