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 Yoshida left PlayStation last year with 31 years of work to speak, he opens up about his complicated time at the company.
Yoshida originally joined Sony back in 1986 to work in the company's PC division and eventually was one of the original employees who took charge of the creation of the PlayStation. This launched the career of a producer of classic PlayStation games such as Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragonand Monkey Run. From 2008 to 2019, Yoshida was president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, but stepped down to head PlayStation Indies until his retirement in 2025. However, according to him, stepping down as president of SIE Worldwide Studios was not up to him.
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 to move 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 leave, but his statements in ALT: GAMES were some of the most honest he's made about the situation. Jim Ryan left Sony in 2024, but Yoshida says the main reason the two butted heads is that, “I didn't listen to him.”
Yoshida says that Ryan gave him the decision to either leave or take on the PlayStation Indies project. Despite reportedly being forced out of his role as president, Yoshida assured listeners that he thoroughly enjoyed working with the Sony division. According to those present at his presentation, Yoshida was in a good mood about the whole thing. When it came to the details, Yoshida said that Ryan asked him “to do some ridiculous things.” He wasn't entirely clear on what the requirements were, but it's possible that it revolved around how some new PlayStation games are handled.
Jim Ryan was a big fan of the Live-Service model
In recent years, Sony has made it clear that it is interested in live-service projects. But it didn't always go according to plan. Games like Helldivers 2 and Marathon have been successful adopt a live services model, but failures as Concord showed how these plans were met or missed. Sony is still committed to its single-player narrative games, but Jim Ryan has invested in further expansion into live services.
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Many of the PlayStation games that were developed under Ryan's leadership have since been canceled. The last of us onlinelive service God of War spin-off, a Twisted Metal the project was among those cancellations. It's hard to say if Yoshida was referring to the company's push for live services when he mentioned Ryan's “ridiculous” demands, but it's possible. Yoshida spoke fondly of his time overseeing games as 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 make some of the biggest exclusives a success.
- Mark
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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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OS Orbis
- Processor
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Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- Resolution
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720p – 8K
Source: This Week in Video Games
