Shu Yoshida has graduated from Sony, however he isn’t retired. Fairly, he’s operating a brand new indie video games consulting firm dubbed YOSP Inc.
Yoshida’s urge for food to do extra in gaming reveals simply how a lot he loves indie sport builders. He received a Lifetime Achievement Awards at Gamescom Latam 2025, the place I did a fireplace chat with him in entrance of an enormous crowd of admirers.
Yoshida simply accomplished 38 years at Sony, together with 31 years at PlayStation, and he accomplished his final day on the huge Japanese firm’s gaming division on January 15.
Whereas he’s leaving an illustrious profession within the PlayStation enterprise, Yoshida advised me in an interview and the group at Gamescom Latam that he’s not completed with gaming. He nonetheless plans on working with indie sport makers, which was his closing task at Sony Interactive Leisure. He joined Sony in 1986, proper out of school, and went to work in company technique to evaluation budgets and search for new companies for Sony.
On the time, Ken Kutaragi, searching for revenge in opposition to Nintendo after it reneged on an settlement to work with Sony on a sport console, pitched and received approval for creating the Sony PlayStation. Yoshida didn’t consider Kutaragi may pull off his plan to do workstation-level 3D graphics on a $500 sport console. However his former boss urged Yoshida to hitch, and he took the plunge into the unknown. Yoshida turned one of many first 80 individuals engaged on the PlayStation.
Shu Yoshida receives the Lifetime Achievement award on the Gamescom Latam BIG Pageant in 2025.
The system debuted in December 1994 in Japan and in 1995 within the U.S. It turned out to be an enormous hit, and Yoshida needed to create a deck to impress Kutaragi’s bosses. Some seen the PlayStation as a “toy” that may tarnish the Sony model. Yoshida pitched the PlayStation because the “world’s first virtual reality system.” As soon as Sony moved ahead, Yoshida needed to persuade Japanese sport builders and publishers to make video games for the system.
Because the PlayStation succeeded, Yoshida climbed up the ranks, shifting to the U.S. and turning into a vp of Sony Laptop Leisure. He turned president of Sony Laptop Leisure Worldwide Studios in 2008, after Phil Harrison left to run Atari. In 2019, as Jim Ryan turned the pinnacle of the PlayStation enterprise, Yoshida stepped down from that function and have become head of PlayStation Indies in 2019. Of that transfer, he stated he had no selection. It was taking that indie job or go away the corporate. In 2023, he acquired a BAFTA Fellowship for his work in video games.
Among the many titles he labored on had been Gran Turismo, The Legend of Dragoon, Ape Escape, Crash Bandicoot, Crash Crew Racing and Spyro 2: Ripto’s Vary. He oversaw improvement on best-selling franchises together with God of Battle, Uncharted and The Final of Us. He additionally turned a preferred spokesman for Sony, typically main the corporate’s responses to avid gamers on social media.
I caught up with Yoshida on the Cube Summit this week in Las Vegas and as soon as once more at Gamescom Latam. We talked about these reminiscences and extra.
The Gamescom Latam Huge Pageant 2025 awards in Sao Paulo, Brazil, began with the lifetime achievement award for Shu Yoshida, who championed indies at Sony’s PlayStation division throughout his a long time of labor on the firm.
Rodrigo Terra, CEO of Abram Video games, the Brazilian sport affiliation, offered the award to Yoshida, who will do a fireplace chat with me at Gamescom Latam on Thursday night in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Right here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
Right here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
Shu Yoshida and Dean Takahashi converse to the group at Gamescom Latam.
GamesBeat: Shu Yoshida simply received the lifetime achievement award right here at Gamescom Latam yesterday, so congratulations to Shu for that. He additionally received the same award from BAFTA. He’s been on this enterprise ceaselessly. He spent 31 years at PlayStation, and 38 years altogether at Sony. He joined in 1986, and he was worker quantity 32 on what was on the time an 80-person PlayStation staff. He helped launch the unique PlayStation, the PS2, PS3, PS4. He finally rose to guide the Worldwide Studios answerable for franchises like Uncharted and The Final of Us. He ended his time there centered on indie video games.
Shu simply retired from Sony on the finish of final 12 months. Now he can discuss a bit extra.
Shuhei Yoshida: I left Sony, however I’m not retired.
GamesBeat: You began a brand new gig. What are you doing now?
Yoshida: I began my very own firm, YOSP Inc. I need to assist indie publishers and builders that I’ve identified for a very long time. I’m working with youthful people who find themselves gifted and obsessed with video games to develop actually high-quality, artistic video games. I’m having plenty of enjoyable working with these firms now.
GamesBeat: One of many good issues about Shu leaving Sony is he’s been capable of do much more interviews recently. I did one with him. It bought handed round fairly a bit. Have been there some moments you talked about in your interviews that you simply had by no means talked about earlier than, that additionally bought plenty of consideration? What had been the tales that individuals preferred listening to about you?
Yoshida: The interview you probably did with me, that was acquired very effectively. What did we discuss?
GamesBeat: One attention-grabbing factor about you and your lengthy profession is that you simply had been very energetic on social media. Folks actually preferred you. Plenty of sport executives appear to draw back from interacting with followers, however you dove into it.
Yoshida: I type of represented PlayStation after I was with the corporate. I’m very energetic on X, the previous Twitter. I’ve numerous followers. Each time PlayStation, as an organization, does one thing good, like launch a brand new nice sport or new {hardware}, make an enormous announcement, individuals come to my channel and say, “Shu, you’re doing a great job.” Even when I had nothing to do with that a part of the corporate. I all the time get credit score I don’t deserve. In fact, when there was one thing unhealthy about PlayStation I’d get, “Shu, you suck.” However fortunately, most of the time PlayStation was doing one thing proper.
Day by day, even at this time, after I get up I take a look at my X account and folks I don’t know inform me I’m doing nice. Take into consideration that. If each morning, somebody you don’t know tells you you’re doing nice, that’s a reasonably pleased life. I’m dwelling a terrific life proper now due to my interactions with individuals on the web.
GamesBeat: I feel you’re being a bit overly humble while you say you had nothing to do with a few of these video games. We talked about Uncharted and The Final of Us, however different issues that occurred in your watch embody Gran Turismo, The Legend of Dragoon, Ape Escape, Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro II. Is there any sport you actually loved engaged on essentially the most?
Dina and Ellie are out on patrol close to Jackson in The Final of Us Half II.
Yoshida: In the course of the PlayStation days, I used to be a producer. I used to be very hands-on with sport improvement. The sport the place I used to be most concerned within the artistic facet was Ape Escape. Do you all know Ape Escape? Oh, thanks. It’s an motion platformer sport, like Mario, however you catch monkeys. That was plenty of enjoyable. Once we began growing the sport, our objective was to create a 3D motion platformer like Mario 64, an incredible sport of that technology. However once we realized that the PlayStation {hardware} staff was making ready for the launch of a brand new controller with two analog sticks, the Twin Shock controller, we determined to make this sport solely playable with the brand new controller. We wished to give you sport mechanics that used two analog sticks very effectively. We prototyped numerous actions, like while you rotate the fitting analog stick, you could possibly transfer a propeller and fly. It was plenty of enjoyable to do.
GamesBeat: I forgot to say God of Battle as effectively. That was a small sport.
Yoshida: On PlayStation 2 I used to be answerable for improvement in the US. Santa Monica Studios was one of many studios I used to be overseeing. After they made God of Battle, that was the very first first-party sport from PlayStation to win sport of the 12 months awards from business occasions just like the DICE Summit or GDC. We had been all very proud.
In the course of the authentic PlayStation days, you may not know this, however Japan was the house of our sport improvement. Numerous nice video games got here out of Japan. These Japanese firms had been revered globally for the standard of their video games. Once I moved from Japan to the U.S. for the PS2, I assumed, “All right, I’m going to bring Japanese game development to the U.S.” However after I landed within the U.S., I shortly realized how open the event neighborhood within the U.S. was. At locations like GDC, sport builders gathered collectively and shared data. They realized from one another.
Shortly, simply after a few years, I finished video games from Japan. The standard of sport improvement within the U.S. was going up so shortly. Once we launched God of Battle, the 3D action-adventure style previously was identified for video games developed in Japan, nevertheless it was so well-done that improvement groups in Japan requested, “How did you make this game?” That was a really proud second for me, working with a U.S. staff to make video games that Japanese builders revered.
GamesBeat: Some individuals are most likely questioning how you bought to be a gamer. There’s a little-known story about your childhood and the way you made video games with pencil and paper.
Yoshida: Once I was a toddler, there was no such factor as console gaming. Throughout my college days, I created a sport utilizing a pencil. I carved the sting of the pencil, as a result of it had six faces, with numbers from one to 6. Then I ready two pencils like that and created a chart on paper, like a matrix. The pencils acted like two cube. While you threw the pencils, you bought a mixture of numbers, like one and 6 or three and 4. You could possibly put any guidelines inside that matrix. For instance, I made a baseball sport. While you’d throw one and one it was a house run, one thing like that. I made many various sorts of video games like that and let my college buddies play them with me.
An enormous crowd turned out to look at Shu Yoshida at Gamescom Latam.
The one sport I made in these days that I used to be actually happy with–the desks we had at college had been manufactured from wooden, with a thick plate of wooden on prime. I carved a baseball diamond into the floor of my desk and used a pachinko ball and a pencil. We’d sit on reverse sides of the desk. One individual would throw the pachinko ball and the opposite would attempt to hit it with the pencil. There have been holes on the floor – this one is a house run, that is an out, it is a double play. That was a very talked-about sport amongst my buddies. However finally I used to be known as to the principal’s workplace to apologize. Fortunately they didn’t report that to my dad and mom.
GamesBeat: Inform me the way you met Ken Kutaragi, the daddy of the PlayStation.
Yoshida: I used to be working at Sony Company. On the time Sony was an electronics firm making the Walkman, TVs, VCRs and so forth. I used to be working within the PC division. Sony was growing a pocket book pc for Apple. The very first Powerbook was designed by Sony. However one time I used to be known as by my former boss to fulfill with Ken Kutaragi. Ken stated, “We’re developing a video game system with the power of a workstation.” On the time Silicon Graphics workstations had been within the $50,000 to $100,000 vary. You used them to create pre-rendered 3D graphics. He stated we had been going to promote this sport machine for $500. I stated, “That’s amazing,” however I completely didn’t consider him.
I went again to the one that beneficial me to fulfill with Kutaragi, and I stated, “I think this guy is a liar.” However that individual stated, “No, I trust what Ken is doing.” So I requested if I may be a part of Ken’s staff. That’s how I got here to hitch the PlayStation staff, lengthy earlier than the PlayStation was launched.
GamesBeat: We’re going to leap round a bit. You’ve engaged with Brazilian sport builders earlier than. You met the parents who based Arvore.
Yoshida: One factor I had numerous enjoyable doing through the PlayStation 4 technology was that I bought concerned within the improvement of the PlayStation VR system, the primary one. That concept really got here from Santa Monica Studios, the God of Battle staff. They created a hand-crafted viewer and hooked up it to a PS3 dev equipment. It used the Transfer controller. It was a hand-crafted VR system. They custom-made a God of Battle sport on PS3. One of many builders put that handmade headset on my head and I used to be on this planet of God of Battle. I regarded down and I used to be Kratos. It was an incredible expertise. If that was potential with the PS3, we thought that with the PS4, we may most likely develop it right into a shopper product. That was the place the inspiration got here from. I used to be closely concerned within the improvement of the particular {hardware}.
Once we had been engaged on PSVR and launched the {hardware}, there was a superb sport known as Pixel Ripped 1989. That sport was developed right here in Brazil by Arvore. The sport used, in my thoughts, the perfect use of the PSVR system. You had been an elementary college scholar, and at school you wished to play your transportable sport system, like a Sport Boy. There’s a sport inside the sport. However it’s a must to play the sport whereas the trainer isn’t you. It’s important to examine on what the trainer is and play the sport efficiently on the transportable you could have. The PSVR system has the power to trace the Twin Shock controller. While you’re holding the Twin Shock like this, you actually really feel such as you’re holding that transportable sport system contained in the digital world. I turned an enormous fan of that sport and met the developer, Ana Ribeiro, the creator of the sport. We turned buddies. That’s how I met a Brazilian developer for the primary time.
GamesBeat: You made a transition in your profession, shifting from being answerable for all of the studios to being answerable for indies. What was that like for you?
Yoshida: It was 2019. Jim Ryan, on the time, was CEO of the corporate. He requested me to do one thing about supporting indies. I don’t know when you recall, however in 2019 PlayStation was criticized by media individuals and business individuals, who stated that PlayStation wasn’t supporting indie builders sufficient. PlayStation was often called an enormous supporter of indie video games across the launch of PS4, and we had nice indie video games obtainable on PS4, however towards the tip of the technology in some way the corporate’s consideration shifted extra to supporting huge video games and first-party video games. I used to be answerable for growing first-party video games, so I used to be getting plenty of assist from the corporate, however I used to be involved in regards to the seeming lack of assist for indie builders.
To me, it’s not solely that I used to be an enormous fan of indie video games, however I really consider that indie builders will create the longer term. They convey innovation to the business. A terrific firm like PlayStation with such a big platform within the business ought to be main assist for creativity in that a part of the business. Nevertheless it regarded like we weren’t doing sufficient. When Jim Ryan requested me to do one thing, I stated I’d do my greatest to advocate for the significance of indie video games inside and out of doors the corporate. I labored with our third-party groups to determine nice video games popping out and tried to advertise them in social channels and so forth. For the final 5 years of my work at PlayStation, I used to be indie video games, figuring out nice video games and selling them in order that numerous individuals would strive them.
GamesBeat: How did you develop your private style round video games and use your instinct to resolve what video games to greenlight and put some huge cash behind?
Shu Yoshida speaks at Gamescom Latam.
Yoshida: Once I was answerable for the first-party studios, in fact we had some widespread IP like God of Battle and Uncharted. Folks wished to play extra of these video games. Their studios had concepts to advance these franchises, and I supported the creation of these sequels. However I all the time wished to steadiness our work on these present franchises and our funding in new IP. In my thoughts, engaged on new IP is the perfect likelihood, the perfect alternative for a staff to give you modern concepts. I all the time wished to spend half of my price range on new IP improvement. So far as what new video games to assist, it was partly intuition and partly listening to the builders to see how a lot thought that they had put into arising with these concepts.
GamesBeat: You’ve all the time been a reasonably optimistic individual, however the sport business has had a tricky time in the previous few years. There have been plenty of layoffs, plenty of studios closing. Folks discuss an indie apocalypse, nevertheless it additionally appears to be affecting triple-A video games. The whole lot has been affected ultimately. How do you keep optimistic?
Yoshida: 5 years in the past, when COVID occurred, everybody on this planet needed to keep at residence. That they had to spend so much of time at residence. Naturally they spent plenty of time taking part in video games. The online game business bought an enormous profit from that scenario. The business grew like loopy. Many firms, particularly giant firms, believed that development would proceed. Business analysts had been projecting that loopy progress would proceed. Naturally, administration individuals invested some huge cash, and some huge cash got here in from outdoors the business. The final couple of years of adjustment, with all these cancellations and layoffs, is the punishment for that type of pondering from administration.
In terms of retaining an optimistic view, while you take a look at the expansion of the business, it’s been truly fizzling out for a few years. However when you take out these anomalies and plot it out, the business continues to be rising steadily. I’ve a powerful principle that video video games make the most of any new technological development. When new know-how comes alongside, the very first thing individuals do with it’s make video games. Builders are fast to take benefit and experiment with new know-how. Leisure all the time wants recent new concepts. In any other case individuals get bored and transfer on.
Fortunately, due to this fixed improvement of recent applied sciences, video video games all the time have recent alternatives to create new experiences, or to cut back the price of improvement, the price of entry into the business. Take digital distribution. That’s the most important change within the final 30 years for the business. Digital distribution democratized the business. Prior to now, earlier than digital, you needed to have capital to grow to be a writer. You needed to spend some huge cash creating bodily stock. You needed to promote to distributors and retailers. You wanted plenty of group to have the ability to do this.
Now, a child in Africa can simply obtain Unity without spending a dime, so long as they’ve a PC, and begin making video games. In the event that they make a terrific sport, they will publish it on Steam or no matter distribution platform – PlayStation Community, Xbox Stay – and promote their sport globally. That’s the most important change, the most important alternative. Increasingly more artistic minds are getting into the business as sport builders. On this area as effectively, I used to be right here three years in the past for the BIG pageant. I met with many builders and performed their video games on the present flooring. Three years later, the video games I used to be capable of play right here, the video games I noticed from builders–I took 14 conferences at this time. The standard has clearly elevated. I’m tremendous optimistic for the way forward for this business, so long as we proceed to create new know-how and builders proceed to make the most of it.
GamesBeat: How did you concentrate on deciding to go away Sony and PlayStation?
Yoshida: I used to be very pleased managing the first-party studios. It’s possible you’ll know that we had improbable, artistic, passionate groups like Naughty Canine, Insomniac, Guerrilla Video games, Media Molecule, or Japan Studios. It was a lot enjoyable working with these groups, so inspiring and so rewarding. The video games these groups made had been performed by tens of millions of individuals globally. We had been capable of see how a lot optimistic affect we had on the lives of individuals. A few of you may need grown up taking part in the video games we developed. It was such a rewarding job.
When Jim Ryan requested me to do one thing about indies, I wasn’t pondering that I’d do something aside from sport improvement for PlayStation. However due to the scenario that I defined, I assumed that I needed to do one thing earlier than I left PlayStation. I actually cared about how PlayStation supported indie video games. 5 years in the past, I set a objective to make my function as an advocate for indie video games at PlayStation out of date. If I did a great job working with all of the groups at PlayStation to assist indies and arrange assets to assist them, I wouldn’t want an individual like me to maintain saying that this was necessary. Everybody on the firm would perceive.
Final 12 months, after these 5 years, I felt like the corporate was on a great trajectory. They’ve good assets and plans to maintain supporting indies. My mission was completed. On the similar time, Jim Ryan, who arrange my function, left the corporate earlier than I did. I turned virtually the final of the administration group from the very first technology of PlayStation. Fortunately, the corporate picked nice individuals as the brand new technology of leaders for PlayStation. They’re a lot youthful than our technology. They’ll deliver recent concepts for the corporate. I felt like my time at PlayStation was ending. That’s how I made a decision to go away.
GamesBeat: From so many indie video games, what tendencies do you be ok with which can be occurring within the sport business? What are some belongings you’re enthusiastic about for the longer term?
Shu Yoshida (head of Sony’s sport studios) reveals off his PlayStation Vita in 2012.
Yoshida: At PlayStation there’s an initiative known as the China Hero Undertaking, the India Hero Undertaking, and now the MENA Hero Undertaking, the Center East and North Africa. PlayStation is investing in builders in these areas to assist them grow to be console sport builders. I used to be a part of this initiative. I frolicked visiting India for a few years, assembly with Indian builders. I actually like after I see video games coming from these areas. Not simply high-quality video games, however builders making the most of their heritage, their tradition and mythology, their music, and even social points in these areas. They’re creating distinctive video games with genuine topics, the type of video games that solely the builders in that area can create.
So many video games are being developed worldwide due to the democratization I talked about. It’s laborious to compete. A few of you could be builders. You should be feeling the identical. Even when you make a terrific sport, it’s laborious to get your sport to be identified by individuals, as a result of so many video games are launched each week. However when you depend on one thing you consider that you understand higher than anybody else on this planet, when you’re essentially the most educated about that topic, that’s an opportunity to your sport to face out. There are all the time individuals with cash, publishers and buyers, in search of new concepts and new video games to scout. I perceive there are a lot of publishing scouts right here at Gamescom Latam looking for new video games. They’re all the time in search of new concepts, one thing they haven’t seen earlier than. Once I see video games like that from India, from Brazil, that basically excites me.
GamesBeat: Might you discuss a number of the most memorable moments out of your lengthy profession?
Yoshida: I all the time say that the sport I’m most happy with was Journey. It was a small sport made by a small staff, proper out of faculty in Los Angeles. Tons of people that performed that sport cried on the finish. It’s a metaphor for human life. Once I performed it, towards the tip I used to be remembering my grandmother, who had handed away a number of years earlier than. Jenova Chen, the creator of the sport–it received numerous awards. He did a speech on the DICE Summit that 12 months, the place he learn a letter from a lady who had misplaced her father. She talked about how taking part in the sport helped her to take care of the disappointment of shedding her father, remembering his life and having the ability to overcome that disappointment. Figuring out {that a} small sport may have a big impact on the lives of individuals like that, a sport you could possibly play in simply 4 hours–I felt the affect a sport may have on human life was so significant. I used to be so proud to be a part of that improvement course of.
GamesBeat: It’s heartening to see that Jenova and thatgamecompany try to present again to the business. They only introduced this week that they wished to do some sport jams to floor narrative video games with emotional storytelling. They’re going to assist fund these video games from indie builders.
Yoshida: Jenova is a improbable individual. They made some huge cash from their sport Sky. It’s nice to see that. You had been within the room for Jenova’s speech at DICE, weren’t you?
GamesBeat: Yeah, I’ve talked to Jenova plenty of occasions. I keep in mind one of many issues he talked about was that that they had this profitable sport, however the firm nonetheless wasn’t financially viable. They needed to discover one other means out, go down a unique path. However happily that led to Sky.
Query: At E3 2013 there have been huge repercussions associated to a video the place Mr. Yoshida demonstrated the method of borrowing a PS4 sport from a buddy. Many thought-about this second Sony’s comeback to a management place available in the market. It set the corporate up because the winner in that technology, even earlier than it was launched. How did Sony see that second, which additionally highlighted the weak factors of the competitors?
Yoshida: I can reply the final half first. It was nice to have a great competitor who allow us to win. We had been simply speaking about our plans. Folks thought we had been sensible.
Shuhei Yoshida of Sony was overjoyed to announce The Final Guardian on the firm’s E3 2015 press briefing.
Query: Now that you simply’ve been working with indie studios so much, what classes do you assume triple-A studios nonetheless need to study from indies?
Yoshida: Huge studios–I labored with bigger studios throughout my first-party improvement days. They’re huge followers of indie video games. Indies strive new concepts. They give you new sport mechanics and even invent new genres of video games. Triple-A studio individuals are sport followers as effectively. They all the time play indie video games and get inspiration from youthful artistic builders. They’re studying, and that can proceed.
The scale of triple-A improvement is turning into even larger now. Corporations need to make protected bets by way of genres and material. They need to do sequels, issues like that. However they need to reinvent their franchises inside that type of improvement. Typically the supply of their inspiration comes from indie builders.
Query: How does it really feel so that you can see franchises that you simply gave beginning to, that you simply noticed being created, have a lot affect now on the sport business?
Yoshida: How does it really feel? It feels superb. I all the time really feel happy with the builders who made these franchises, who pushed their franchises to new heights. I got here up as a producer in studio administration. I can’t program or draw artwork or design video games. I’ve all the time had a excessive respect for the individuals who can do this. Each time youthful builders push to the subsequent stage for these franchises and get a terrific response from their viewers, that makes me happy with them.
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