In a recent interview, Shuhei Yoshida, a veteran PlayStation executive, opened up about his career transition and the pivotal moment when he was asked to step down from his role as head of PlayStation’s first-party studios. Yoshida disclosed that Jim Ryan, then CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, presented him with a stark choice: take on a new role focused on indie games or leave the company altogether.
Yoshida, who has been with PlayStation since the PS1 era, was part of a leadership group that included industry icons like Ken Kutaragi, Kaz Hirai, Andrew House, and Shawn Layden. Reflecting on his decision to leave Sony, Yoshida clarified that he hasn’t retired but instead chose to depart after five years of advocating for indie games within PlayStation.
“Jim Ryan was the last leader of our generation,” Yoshida said. “We handed down to the next generation of management, like Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst. For the last five years, my responsibility was to promote indie games inside and outside of PlayStation.”
Yoshida’s passion for indie games stemmed from a desire to address criticism from the indie community, which had accused PlayStation of neglecting smaller developers. “A few years back, one of the reasons I got that job from Jim—we’d been criticized by the indie community. They said that PlayStation doesn’t care about indies,” he explained. “You don’t hear that kind of criticism anymore.”
Under Yoshida’s leadership, PlayStation made significant strides in supporting indie developers. He highlighted how indie games began performing better on PlayStation compared to other platforms, a stark contrast to earlier years when titles often sold three to five times more on Nintendo Switch. “Last year, we had lots of anecdotes from our indie partners that their new games were selling better on PlayStation than any other platform,” Yoshida noted.
Despite his successes, Yoshida admitted that his initial goal was to make his role obsolete. “My personal goal, when I started the indie job, was to make my position obsolete,” he said. “The company would be doing so well that there was no need for someone like me to tell everyone that this was important. I feel like we’ve achieved that pretty well.”
When asked about the challenges of transitioning from managing first-party studios to focusing on indie games, Yoshida revealed that the decision wasn’t entirely his own. “Moving from first-party to indies? Well, I had no choice,” he said. “When Jim asked me to do the indie job, the choice was to do that or leave the company.”
Yoshida’s dedication to indie games ultimately led him to leave Sony earlier this year. He now serves as an independent adviser to several indie publishers and developers, continuing his mission to support the indie community. “The transition out of Sony to becoming an independent adviser is less of a change than moving out of first-party,” he concluded.
