Shuhei Yoshida Was Forced to Accept Indie Job or Quit Sony; Didn’t Believe Kutaragi Could Succeed With Original PlayStation
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After 31 years at PlayStation, Shuhei Yoshida left the company on January 15. Before retiring, he was put in charge of the PlayStation Indies section. While he did an excellent job, it turns out this role was not something the former PlayStation executive sought after.
In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Yoshida shared that Jim Ryan pushed him to take over the indie games division, focusing specifically on promoting and supporting indie titles for PlayStation. Yoshida had no other choice but to accept the role or leave the company
Shuhei Yoshida Was Forced to Accept Indie Role
Shuhei Yoshida revealed that he didn’t have much of a choice when Jim Ryan asked him to take over the indie games. He could either accept the role or leave. But Yoshida cared deeply about the future of PlayStation and indie games, and he truly wanted to make a difference.
He explained that the shift from managing internal productions to handling indie games was an even bigger change for him than leaving the company this year. Feeling fortunate, Yoshida found that the indie community, including the publishers and developers he worked with, trusted his ability to help them. As a result, he became a consultant for some of these companies and continues collaborating with respected indie publishers and developers.
Yoshida also explained why Jim Ryan made him take on this role: it was about rebuilding the relationship with indie developers. Ryan needed someone reliable and well-liked to fix the mistakes made during the PS4 era.
In the same interview, Yoshida also reflected on his early days at Sony, revealing that he didn’t initially believe that Ken Kutaragi could pull off his ambitious plan to create workstation-level 3D graphics on a $500 game console. At the time, it seemed like a risky and uncertain venture.
However, Yoshida’s former boss urged him to join the project, and despite his doubts, he decided to take the plunge into the unknown. This decision led him to become one of the first 80 people to work on the PlayStation, a move that would ultimately help shape the future of gaming.
In other news, Former PlayStation CEO Shawn Layden believes the PS6 won’t be completely discless, despite the PS5 Pro’s digital-only version.
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