Looking back at Shuhei Yoshida’s 31 years with PlayStation – PlayStation.Blog

If you’ve been listening to the PlayStation Podcast for the past 14 years then you definitely know Shuhei Yoshida. Perhaps best known for his long-time role as PlayStation Studios President of the PS3 and PS4, Yoshida-san has spent the past few years evangelizing indie developers as Chief Innovation Officer ​​India at PlayStation.

As PlayStation’s 30th anniversary rolls around next week, I had some time to catch up with Yoshida-san to discuss his career, plans for the future, and his top game picks in the works. for 30 years of PlayStation. Read on for some excerpts from our lengthy conversation.

Note: The interview has been condensed for clarity and brevity. To hear the full conversation, click here. (Apple, Spotify, Direct DL)

SID: You were one of our first guests on the PlayStation Podcast, probably 14 years ago. But it’s been quite a while…. What have you done?

SHU: I’ve been traveling a lot! I’ve been everywhere. I went to Brazil, India, Australia, Sweden, visited developers, game events, saw new games from developers, and tweeted about games I liked throughout the year.

SID: Nice to have you, we’re going to do a lot of things. But I heard you have some news for us here today, right?

SHU: Yes, I have an announcement to make. I will be leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment on January 15, 2025… this is like announcing a new game release date, [something] I haven’t done it in a long time [laughs].

SID: You’ve been working with Sony Interactive for a long time. What guides the decision and timing?

SHU: I’ve been with PlayStation since the beginning and this is my 31st year with PlayStation. And when I turned 30, I thought, hmm, maybe it’s time for me to move on. You know, the company is doing very well. I love PS5, I love the games coming out on the platform. And we have new generations of managers that I respect and admire. And I’m excited about the future of PlayStation.

You know, PlayStation is in very good hands. I thought, okay, this is my time.

SID: That makes a lot of sense. Well, reflect on your career. I know you’ve been here a long time, but how long exactly have you been with PlayStation?

SHU: Yes, I joined Ken Kutanagi’s team in February 1993, when they were still developing the original PlayStation. Ken’s team only has engineers. Everyone is an engineer. And I was the first non-technical person to join the team when the company, Sony Corporation at the time, started planning to bring the PlayStation to market. So it’s been 31 years.

SID: Ken Kutaragi is often called the father of PlayStation. What was it like working at the company at that time, before the first PlayStation launched?

SHU: Yeah so when I joined [PlayStation]it’s still just a part. Ken’s team was doing the development and there was another team under Sony Music Entertainment Japan that was making a game for the Super Nintendo and that was another small team that was preparing to make a game for the PlayStation. So the two teams merged, Ken’s team under Sony and Sato-san’s team under Sony Music Entertainment Japan, to create Sony Computer Entertainment in November 1993.

When the company was established as a joint venture, we held a party and everyone stayed in one room at the hotel. [laughs]. I remember we were about 80 people in total. We were very young.

SID: Very small but must be very interesting!

SHU: Oh yeah, we’re excited about the innovation that Ken’s team is bringing, like 3D graphics, real-time technology, and CD-ROMs with lots of data that we can put in at a fraction of the cost. low production. And so we really have very high hopes, very high ambitions.

However, we are not known in the video game industry. And there were other electronics companies, big companies that tried to get into the video game industry, but, you know, weren’t successful. So early on before the launch of PlayStation, I honestly think we weren’t taken very seriously by the industry.

SID: Yeah, it’s funny how these things work. And you know here we are, 31 years later, and it’s a very different story….tell me a little bit about your first job with PlayStation.

SHU: When I joined Ken’s team, my job was to talk to publishers and developers in Japan. So, as head of account management, I called many companies in Japan, publishers and developers from Hokkaido to Kyushu and made appointments and brought a team of executives including Ken Kutaragi himself visited the publisher and talked about PlayStation, hoping that they would create games on PlayStation.

So it was a really exciting time but also a really challenging time because not many people in the industry believed in 3D graphics technology at the time.

Listen to our full discussion on the PlayStation Podcast to learn more about Shuhei Yoshida’s experience with PlayStation in its early days.

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SID: You eventually became president of PlayStation Studios. Are there any memories that particularly stand out for you from your time at PlayStation Studios?

SHU: During my time in game development, there were so many great games and great teams that I was lucky enough to work with. And every year, attending events like DICE Summit is exciting because some of our games have been nominated for Game of the Year multiple times. When you’re in the industry, if you get to participate in a Game of the Year game, you’re lucky. But I do [nominated] almost every year….

Among all these times, however, one that stands out in my memory as something truly, truly special was when Journey received the Game of the Year Award. Journey is distributed through the PlayStation Network. It’s a small, digital-only game. You can finish the game in about three hours.

But that game…[won] Game of the Year against all these AAA titles, I think this is a first in the industry….creator Jenova Chen spoke at the summit and he talked about the letter he received from a girl lost her father and she thought about her father and she was able to move on with her life.

The entire audience stood up and the whole room was filled with happiness and a wonderful feeling that this small game could have a big impact on people’s lives.

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SID: How did you get into your current role as Head of India Initiatives at Sony Interactive?

SHU: I like indie games. When the indie boom began in 2000, all digital distribution started on PCs, mobile devices, and consoles. Almost anyone in the world can create small digital games that can be sold and distributed globally. That has created a great opportunity for the industry to try new ideas.

Small games, because they are small, they do not require large capital. So you can try ideas that have never been done before and that will start a whole new channel for the whole industry. To me it’s like treasure hunting. When I was managing [PlayStation Studios] working with major studios, creating AAA games is amazing.

However, when attending events like E3 or Gamescom, I always go to the indie game section. And I found games that I liked and sometimes the developer was there to demo the game. So I’ll take pictures with the developers, trying to help promote these games.

That’s pretty much what I did as a hobby when I was managing PlayStation Studios. So when I got a job where I could spend 100% of my time helping independent people, it felt like a dream job.

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Shu is featured as a playable character in Capybara Games’ Super Time Force Ultra.