Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida admitted he would have opposed Sony's aggressive push into live service gaming if he'd been in charge. The ex-president of SIE Worldwide Studios (2008-2019) revealed to Kinda Funny Games that PlayStation leadership always understood the risks of this strategy.

Yoshida's remarks come during turbulent times for PlayStation's live service ambitions. While Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 shattered records as PlayStation Studios' fastest-selling title (12 million copies in 12 weeks), other live service projects either flopped or got canceled.

Sony's Concord became one of PlayStation's most spectacular failures, shutting down after just weeks due to abysmal player engagement. Reports indicate the ill-fated project cost approximately $200 million in initial development alone - not including IP acquisition or studio purchase costs.

This disastrous launch followed Sony canceling Naughty Dog's The Last of Us multiplayer project. Most recently, PlayStation axed two unannounced live service titles - including a God of War project at Bluepoint and another title from Days Gone developer Bend Studio.

Yoshida, who recently departed Sony after 31 years, explained his perspective: "If the company was considering [going] that way, it probably didn't make sense to stop making another God of War or single-player game and put all the money into live service games." He praised current leadership for maintaining single-player development while expanding into live service gaming.

Sony leadership has acknowledged these struggles. CFO Hiroki Totoki admitted the company failed to implement adequate testing protocols for Concord, saying they should have conducted user testing and internal evaluations much earlier. He also cited organizational silos and poor release timing as contributing factors to the failure.

Senior VP Sadahiko Hayakawa contrasted Helldivers 2's success with Concord's collapse, vowing to share lessons across studios. PlayStation remains committed to balancing its proven single-player strengths with riskier live service experiments. Upcoming live service projects include Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.