It’s ok everyone, former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida has said that – to his knowledge – none of the first-party studios under the console maker’s command have been forced into making live-service games. They’ve more likely just chosen to get on board with the “big initiative”, for the small reason of thinking it’d give them a better chance of having a project actually be picked up and supported.
The soon to be voice of a duck mascot said this stuff in an interview with Sacred Symbols+ (thanks, Push Square), and it’s interesting, if, to be fair, just the kind of thing you’d expect someone who’s been a boss at a big company like this to say.
After saying the bit about studios not being forced into doing live-service things, Yoshida outlined: “From my experience, when studios see the company has a big initiative, [they realise] riding on that gives them a better chance of getting a project approved and supported.”
“It’s not like [current PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst] is telling teams they need to make live service games,” he continued, “It’s likely mutual.”
While you can’t say he’s not technically right, it does seem like Yoshida’s dipping into corpospeak here. After all, if you’re suggesting that studios are seeing their bosses get really into a certain thing, and concluding that just going along with it will impact their chances of not ending up in the kind of perilous limbo we hear about studios who end up having multiple pitches rejected having to deal with, surely that’s not the healthiest thing in the world for a company, and something execs should be trying to mitigate.
I know it’s a bit idealistic, but surely companies like PlayStation should be aiming to foster an environment in which their flagship studios feel they’ve got the trust of the higher-ups and can pitch whatever they feel based on their expertise is the right game for their unique talents and can fit into the market best? You know, rather than everyone getting swept up in a company-wide bandwagon and crowding up a space which, in the case of live-service stuff prior to PlayStation’s largely ill-fated big push, was already pretty tough to break into and score a big hit.
I don’t know. To be fair, I’ve not spent the past 30 years or so playing a big role in leading one of he biggest companies in gaming. Plus, to be fair to Yoshida, he doesn’t appear to be saying this a good thing neccesarily, just pointing out that it happens.
He also said regarding the live-service projects PlayStation’s recently canned: “Yeah, it sucks”.