Shuhei Yoshida, a former PlayStation executive who served as President of SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, recently expressed his reservations about Sony's push into live service video games. In an interview with Kinda Funny Games, Yoshida revealed that Sony was well aware of the risks involved in this strategic shift.

His comments come at a challenging time for PlayStation's live service ventures. While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks and becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, other Sony live service titles have faced significant setbacks. Notably, Sony's Concord was a major disappointment, lasting only a few weeks before being taken offline due to low player engagement. Sony eventually decided to cancel the game entirely and shut down its developer, Firewalk Studios. According to a report by Kotaku, the initial development budget for Concord was approximately $200 million, which did not cover the full development costs or the acquisition of the Concord IP or Firewalk Studios.

The failure of Concord followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project, and recent reports indicate that Sony has canceled two more unannounced live service games, including a God of War title from Bluepoint and another from Days Gone developer Bend.

Yoshida, who left Sony after 31 years of service, shared his perspective on the live service strategy in the interview. He suggested that if he were in the position of Hermen Hulst, the current Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO, he would have resisted the move towards live service games. Yoshida explained that during his tenure, he was responsible for budget allocation and felt that diverting funds from successful single-player titles like God of War to live service games was risky. However, he noted that after his departure, Sony provided Hulst with additional resources to pursue both single-player and live service games.

Yoshida acknowledged the inherent unpredictability of the gaming industry, citing Helldivers 2's unexpected success as an example. He expressed hope that Sony's strategy would ultimately prove successful but admitted that, in Hulst's shoes, he might have pushed back against the live service direction.

In a recent financial call, Sony president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki discussed the lessons learned from both the success of Helldivers 2 and the failure of Concord. Totoki emphasized the need for earlier development gates, such as user testing and internal evaluations, to identify and address issues before a game's launch. He also highlighted Sony's "siloed organization" and the potential for title cannibalization, particularly noting Concord's unfortunate release timing close to the hit game Black Myth: Wukong.

Totoki stressed the importance of improving cross-organizational collaboration and optimizing release windows to prevent future cannibalization and maximize title performance.

During the same call, Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa compared the launches of Helldivers 2 and Concord, stating that the lessons learned would be shared across Sony's studios. He emphasized the company's intention to strengthen its development management system by combining the strengths of its single-player games with the potential of live service titles.

Looking ahead, several PlayStation live service games remain in development, including Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.