PlayStation Veteran Shuhei Yoshida recently revealed during a presentation that he stepped down as president due to disagreements with Jim Ryan. After leaving PlayStation last year to speak out for a 31-year career, Yoshida is opening up about his complicated time with the company.
Yoshida originally joined Sony in 1986 to work in the company's PC division, and he would eventually become one of the original employees involved in the creation of the PlayStation. It started a career as a producer on classic PlayStation games Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragonand App Escape. From 2008 to 2019, Yoshida was president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, but left the position of head of PlayStation Indies until his retirement in 2025. According to him, however, stepping down as president of SIE Worldwide Studios was not in his favour.
Shuhei Yoshida says former CEO Jim Ryan forced him to step down as president
During a speech at the ALT: GAMES festival in Australia, Yoshida revealed that Jim Ryan didn't really give him a choice because he stepped away from his position as president and switched to PlayStation Indies. Over the years, Yoshida hasn't shied away from making it clear that it wasn't his decision to step down, but his statements on ALT: GAMES have been the clearest he's ever made about the situation. Jim Ryan left Sony in 2024, but Yoshida says that the main reason the two heads came out was, “I didn't listen to him.”
Yoshida says that Ryan gave her the decision to leave or take on the PlayStation Indies project. Despite reportedly stepping down from his role as president, Yoshida assured the audience that he enjoyed his time working with this division of Sony. According to those present during his presentation, Yoshida was in good spirits about the whole thing. When it came to the specifics, Yoshida said Ryan asked him to “do some funny things.” He wasn't really clear on what these requests were, but it's possible that they revolved around how some of the new PlayStation games are being handled.
Jim Ryan was a big fan of the live-service model
In recent years, Sony has made it clear that the company is interested in direct-to-service projects. It hasn't always gone according to plan, though. Like games Hell Diver 2 and Marathon Live-service models have succeeded, but failed just as well consent It shows how hit or miss these plans are. Sony is still committed to its single-player story games, but expanding further into the live-service area was something Jim Ryan invested in.
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Several live-service PlayStation games in development under Ryan's leadership have been canceled. The last of us onlineDirect service god of war spin-offs, and a Twisted metal The project is one of these cancellations. It's hard to say whether Yoshida was referring to the company's live-service push when he mentioned Ryan's “ridiculous” requests, but it's possible. Yoshida liked to observe the games of his time god of war, unknown, The last of usand Ghost of Tsushima. The PlayStation veteran may no longer be with the company, but his leadership helped some big exclusives become successes.
- brand
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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 OS
- processor
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Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- resolve
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720p – 8K
Source: This Week in Video Games
