Former PlayStation government Shuhei Yoshida claims he was “fired” from his function as SIE Worldwide Studios president as a result of he didn’t hearken to then-CEO Jim Ryan.
The favored government stop Sony final 12 months after 31 years on the firm, the place he helped launch the unique PlayStation, and served as its president of SIE Worldwide Studios between 2008 and 2019.
In 2019 it was introduced that Yoshida had stepped all the way down to work on a brand new initiative specializing in constructing relationships with indie builders, with Hermen Hulst changing him as president.
Since then, nonetheless, Yoshida has acknowledged a variety of instances that it wasn’t his determination to step down as president, and that whereas he loved his new function working with indie studios, he needed to take it or depart PlayStation altogether.
Yoshida’s newest feedback got here when he attended the Alt:Video games pageant in Australia this previous weekend, the place he was giving a chat on Sunday about what makes an indie sport profitable when he reportedly made the feedback.
As reported by This Week in Video Video games, Yoshida listed a few of his achievements as Worldwide Studios president, then claimed he was fired for not agreeing to do sure issues (which he didn’t specify) for Ryan.
“I helped Santa Monica to make God of Conflict, Naughty Canine to make Uncharted and The Final of Us, and Sucker Punch to make the attractive Ghost of Tsushima,” Yoshida reportedly mentioned. “Ghost of Tsushima was one of many final video games that I labored on because the president of Worldwide Studios.
“However in 2019, after 11 years main the first-party improvement, I used to be fired from the function. Jim Ryan needed to take away me from first-party as a result of I didn’t hearken to him. He requested to do some ridiculous issues, and I mentioned ‘no’.”
The report states that Yoshida mentioned this in a jovial method, resulting in laugher from the viewers, however this isn’t the primary time Yoshida has mentioned his elimination from the SIE Worldwide Studios president function.
Final 12 months, a month after he left Sony, Yoshida acknowledged that he was didn’t select to step down in 2019 and was as a substitute compelled to take the brand new indies function, as a result of the choice would have been leaving PlayStation altogether.
“Transferring from first-party to indies? Properly, I had no alternative,” Yoshida defined to VentureBeat in February 2025. “When Jim requested me to do the indie job, the selection was to do this or depart the corporate. However I felt very strongly in regards to the state of PlayStation and indies. I actually needed to do that. I believed I may do one thing distinctive for that goal.”
Yoshida additionally advised Kinda Humorous final 12 months that if he had nonetheless been Worldwide Studios president he would have resisted the corporate’s push for stay service video games, joking: “If I used to be in Hermen [Hulst’s] place, in all probability I might’ve tried to withstand that path – possibly that’s one of many causes they eliminated me from the first-party.”
