PlayStation's Shuhei Yoshida Leaves Sony After 31 Years. However, He Plans to Stay in Industry Due to His Passion for Indie Games
One of the creators of the first PlayStation is leaving Sony. Shuhei Yoshida worked at the Japanese company for nearly 31 years, and after leaving he wants to focus on indie games.
After more than 30 years of working at Sony, Shuhei Yoshida has decided to leave the Japanese company. He spent the last few years as the head of the PlayStation Indies Initiative, but in the past - during the PS3 and PS4 era - he held the position of the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios.
Reason for leaving
The industry veteran announced his decision to leave the company on January 15, 2025, last year. In the latest PlayStation podcast, he talked about his career and plans for the future, among other things. During the conversation, he also revealed the reason for his departure.
I’ve been with PlayStation from the beginning, and this is my 31st year with PlayStation. And when I hit 30 years, I was thinking, hmm, it may be about time for me to move on. You know, the company’s been doing great. I love PS5, I love the games that are coming out on this platform. And we have new generations of management who I respect and admire. And I’m so excited for the future of PlayStation.
So you know, PlayStation is in really good hands. I thought, okay, this is my time.
Beginnings at Sony
Yoshida has been associated with Sony since February 1993, when he joined Ken Kutaragi's team to develop the first PlayStation. At that time, he was his first non-technical member. His tasks included convincing publishers and developers about the upcoming console. He recalls that it was a very difficult, but also cool period.
When I joined Ken’s team, my assignment was to talk to publishers and developers in Japan. So as a lead in account management, I made a phone call to many companies in Japan, publishers and developers from Hokkaido to Kyushu and made an appointment and brought a group of people of executives including Ken Kutaragi himself, to visit the publisher and talk about PlayStation, hoping that they would make games on PlayStation.
Love for indie games
Yoshida stated on his X profile that he isn't going to retire and still wants to actively help in indie game development (via Automaton-West). As he himself admits, he loves this type of game and believes that supporting it is very important, as it often gives rise to innovative ideas.
Indie creator support is important in this business. Recently, AAA titles have been the drivers of business, but because they have become so large in scale, it can be difficult to try new things. It is the indie community that creates new genres and gives birth to innovation. That’s why it’s really important for PlayStation, one of the major players in the industry, to support indie games.
It's worth mentioning as a curiosity that Yoshida also selected one particular moment from his entire career that stood out the most in his memory. This was winning the Game of the Year award by Journey. He admitted that although the titles he was associated with received nominations almost every year, that moment remained special for him.
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