Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida expressed his reservations about Sony’s push into live service video games during a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games. Yoshida, who served as President of SIE Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019, acknowledged that Sony was aware of the risks associated with investing heavily in this genre.

The comments come at a challenging time for PlayStation's live service offerings. While Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 achieved remarkable success, selling 12 million copies in just 12 weeks to become the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, other ventures have not fared as well. Notably, Sony’s Concord faced a disastrous launch and was quickly taken offline due to low player engagement. The game was eventually canceled, and its developer, Firewalk Studios, was shut down. Reports from Kotaku suggest that the initial development budget for Concord was around $200 million, which did not cover the full development costs, IP rights, or the acquisition of Firewalk Studios itself.

The failure of Concord followed the cancellation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer project. Additionally, Sony recently canceled two other unannounced live service games, including a God of War title by Bluepoint and another by Days Gone developer Bend.

Yoshida, who left Sony after 31 years with the company, reflected on the strategy 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 the move away from single-player titles. “For me, I was managing this budget, so I was responsible for allocating money to what kinds of games to make,” Yoshida explained. He noted that Sony provided additional resources to explore live service games while continuing to support single-player projects.

Yoshida emphasized the inherent risk in the live service market, highlighting that success is not guaranteed. He praised the unexpected triumph of Helldivers 2, stating, “Nobody expected that. So you can’t plan a success in this industry. That’s the most fun part of this business.” Despite his reservations, he expressed hope that Sony's strategy would eventually prove successful.

In a 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 admitted that Sony should have conducted user testing and internal evaluations much earlier in Concord’s development process. He also pointed to Sony’s “siloed organization” and the game’s release timing, which overlapped with the launch of Black Myth: Wukong, as factors contributing to Concord’s poor performance.

Totoki emphasized the need for better coordination across Sony’s organizational boundaries and more strategic release planning to avoid cannibalization of sales. He stressed the importance of selecting optimal release windows to maximize the performance of game launches.

Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa compared the contrasting fates of Helldivers 2 and Concord, noting that the company plans to share the insights gained from these experiences across its studios. The focus will be on improving title development management and the process of continuously adding content post-launch to enhance live service offerings.

Looking ahead, Sony aims to balance its portfolio by continuing to develop single-player games, leveraging its proven IPs, while also pursuing the potential upside of live service games, despite the associated risks. Upcoming live service titles include Bungie’s Marathon, Guerrilla’s Horizon Online, and Haven Studio’s Fairgame$.