Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has expressed his reservations about Sony's controversial push into live service video games. In a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, Yoshida, who served as President of SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, acknowledged that Sony was well aware of the risks associated with investing in live service games.
Yoshida's comments come at a critical juncture 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 have faced significant challenges. Notably, Sony's Concord turned into one of the biggest flops in PlayStation history, shutting down after only a few weeks due to dismal player engagement. The financial impact of Concord's failure was substantial, with initial development costs reported at around $200 million by Kotaku, not including the acquisition of the IP rights or Firewalk Studios.
The failure of Concord was preceded by the cancellation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game. This week, Sony reportedly canceled two more unannounced live service projects, one from Bluepoint Games working on a God of War title, and another from Bend Studio, known for Days Gone.
In his interview, Yoshida, who recently left Sony after 31 years, reflected on the strategic shift towards live service games. He suggested that if he were in the position of current Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst, he might have resisted this direction. Yoshida highlighted the allocation of resources, questioning the wisdom of diverting funds from successful single-player titles like God of War to live service games.
Yoshida noted that under Hulst's leadership, Sony provided additional resources to explore live service games while continuing to support single-player titles. He acknowledged the inherent risks in the highly competitive live service genre but praised Sony's willingness to take chances, exemplified by the unexpected success of Helldivers 2. Yoshida emphasized that success in the gaming industry cannot be planned, which he finds to be one of the most exciting aspects of the business.
In a recent financial call, Sony president, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki discussed the lessons learned from both Helldivers 2 and Concord. Totoki admitted that Sony should have conducted development gates, such as user testing and internal evaluations, much earlier in the case of Concord. He stressed the need for earlier intervention to address issues during development.
Totoki also pointed to Sony's "siloed organization" and the timing of Concord's release as contributing factors to its failure. He suggested that better coordination across different organizational boundaries and more strategic release timing could have mitigated the cannibalization effect caused by launching Concord shortly after the successful release of Black Myth: Wukong.
During the same call, Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa compared the launches of Helldivers 2 and Concord, emphasizing the company's intent to share the lessons learned across its studios. Hayakawa outlined plans to enhance development management and post-launch content strategies to strengthen Sony's portfolio. He highlighted the balance Sony aims to strike between leveraging its strengths in single-player games and pursuing the potential upside of live service titles, despite the risks involved.
Looking ahead, several PlayStation live service projects are still in development, including Bungie’s Marathon, Guerrilla’s Horizon Online, and Haven Studio’s Fairgame$. Sony continues to navigate the complex landscape of live service gaming, striving to apply the hard-earned lessons from its recent successes and failures.
