PlayStation Veteran Shuhei Yoshida recently revealed during a presentation that he was fired from his role as president due to disagreements with Jim Ryan. After leaving PlayStation last year with 31 years of work to speak of, Yoshida opens up about his complicated time with the company.
Yoshida originally joined Sony back in 1986 to work in the company's PC division, and he would eventually become one of the original employees to tackle the PlayStation's creation. This kick-started a career as a producer on classic PlayStation games such as Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the dragonand Ape Escape. From 2008 to 2019, Yoshida was the president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, but he stepped down as head of PlayStation Indies until his retirement in 2025. However, according to him, it was not up to him to step down as president of SIE Worldwide Studios.
Shuhei Yoshida says ex-CEO Jim Ryan forced him to leave his position as president
Speaking at the ALT: GAMES festival in Australia, Yoshida revealed that the reason he left his position as president and moved to PlayStation Indies is because Jim Ryan didn't really give him a choice. Over the years, Yoshida hasn't shied away from making it clear that it wasn't his decision to step down, but his statements at ALT: GAMES have been some of the most candid he's made about the situation. Jim Ryan left Sony in 2024, but Yoshida says the main reason for the two shaking heads is that “I didn't listen to him.”
Yoshida says Ryan gave him the decision to either leave or take on the PlayStation Indies project. Despite allegedly being forced out of his role as president, Yoshida assured listeners that he thoroughly enjoyed his time working with this division of Sony. According to those present during his presentation, Yoshida was in good spirits about it all. When it came down to the details, Yoshida said Ryan asked him to “do some ridiculous things.” He wasn't exactly clear on what those requests were, but it's possible that they revolved around how some new PlayStation games are handled.
Jim Ryan was a big fan of the Live-Service model
Sony has made it clear in recent years that the company is interested in live-service projects. However, this has not always gone according to plan. Games like Helldivers 2 and Marathon have been successful takes on the live service model, but failures that Harmony has shown how these plans have been hit or miss. Sony is still committed to its narrative single-player games, but expanding further into live service territory was something Jim Ryan invested in.
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Many of the live service PlayStation games that were in development under Ryan's leadership have since been discontinued. The last of us onlinea live service God of war spin-off and one Twisted Metal project has been among these cancellations. It's hard to say whether Yoshida was referring to the company's live-services push when he mentioned Ryan's “ridiculous” requests, but it's possible. Yoshida spoke fondly of his time overseeing games such as The God of War, Uncharted, The last of usand Ghost of Tsushima. The PlayStation veteran may no longer be with the company, but his leadership helped some of the biggest exclusives become successes.
- Stamp
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Sony
- Original release date
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November 12, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499, €499, £449, £49,980 (Base) // $399, €399, £359, £39,980 (Digital),
- Operating system
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Orbis Olympics
- Processor
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Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- Resolution
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720p – 8K
Source: This Week in Video Games
