Shuhei Yoshida on his relocation, exclusives and future of PS3

by Alan Tsang { Jul 8th 2008 at 11:00AM }

Sony's President of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, sat down with ThreeSpeech in an interview to discuss his plans for the PlayStation name. He began by giving some background information about himself and his transition into Phil Harrison's former position, admitting that his predecessor's departure was "unexpected" but he will "continue that drive."

The main question on everyone's mind was exclusives, mainly whether Sony will begin paying for them. Yoshida stated that he understands due to the rising cost of development, third-party publishers must recuperate costs, hence the need to go multi-platform. He tells us Sony's strategy is "invest(ing) in our first-party studios; (and) in terms of exclusive titles, our role becomes more important." LittleBigPlanet is the exclusive the President is most looking forward to and further indicated Home should be ready by Christmas. He also addresses canceled games; citing "business situations and priorities" as the reasons why Eight Days and The Getaway, in their pre-production phase, landed on the cutting room floor.

Yoshida also confirmed his move from the US back to Japan this year, in order to participate more in the "overall direction-setting of our company and our future platforms" and "to participate in the top management group of SCEI and really achieve the vision that Kaz has in terms of how this company should work going forward." Of course, no Sony executive can go on interview without agreeing with the prediction that the PS3 will remain "a really relevant system for another ten years." For more, read the in-depth interview over at ThreeSpeech.

Tags: interview, shuhei-yoshida, threespeech

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shader @ Jul 8th 2008 11:13AM

I think Sony should keep its money for first-party titles. Paying fpr 3rd party exclusives just leads down a slippery slope...

Gaucho @ Jul 8th 2008 11:17AM

I thought Home was pushed back to Fall not Christmas.

Devin @ Jul 8th 2008 11:30AM

The public beta (according to David Reeves) should be available this Fall....I can't wait....

Joe @ Jul 8th 2008 11:22AM

I just want to know why if First Party games are what Sony is really looking at making why cancel two games people really were looking forward too. I thought from what I saw of Both the Getaway and Eight Days they could be great fun. One looked like a GTA kind of game and the other looked like a game like Uncharted only different.

Also if Sony can pay Factor 5 to make Lair and that game was not good why can't they make these games because these games look great which I never thought Lair did.

Also with more first party games I wonder if this means Sony is going to buy some more game companies. I would love to hear Sony say they bought some one at E3.

Brodie-san @ Jul 8th 2008 12:16PM

Both games lacked multiplayer so they got the chop. It appears that Sony are REALLY insisting that future games contain at least some sort of online facet as part of their "connected methodology".

I'm just glad this new rule came in after Uncharted was created. Though it does mean that the likes of "Uncharted 2: Drake's Back!" will probably include an online mode. My brain can't even conceptualise what that will be like.
:)

the_culture @ Jul 8th 2008 11:26AM

"As far as I can see, with major publishers like Activision and EA, their major titles will be day-and-date with the Xbox 360 and their quality will be really good. And some of the titles, I expect, will have something extra because of the PS3’s abilities and the space on the Blu-ray format."

I sure hope he's talking about future titles because it hasn't been that way yet. The PS3 has been getting the shaft with titles like Lost Planet, Madden 08, etc.

Michael Catt @ Jul 8th 2008 11:28AM

HELP!!!!! SORRY FOR BEING OFF TOPIC, BUT HAS ANYONE HAD PROBLEMS WITH 2.41????? IN GAME XMB WONT WORK!

tojfs7931 @ Jul 8th 2008 12:46PM

uhm, no.

Dwag @ Jul 8th 2008 11:41AM

I doubt Home will come out this year.

Devin @ Jul 8th 2008 12:10PM

Then you'll be surprised when the public beta arrives this Fall.....

maxpontiac @ Jul 8th 2008 12:06PM

Sony needs to concentrate on their efforts to avoid game disasters such as Lair and Haze.

If those games were on the level of MGS4 for example, things would be completely different right now.

With the US economy being the way it is right now, QUALITY should be job one (yes, I borrowed that from Ford)

Devin @ Jul 8th 2008 12:10PM

The PS3 needs exclusives to win the gen's war for supremacy because even though it's feature-packed, it's the games that matter, right? I personally, have already been sold on how great the exclusives are over the competition, but others still need convinced and by staying 1st-party exclusive should help give Sony more control over what is put out, but 3rd party support does help, as well. It's just how much money is Sony willing to spend....

Dwag @ Jul 8th 2008 12:55PM

Well you might be surprised when they say delayed until Q2 09.

But you're right on the First party stuff but the problem is that they should have been doing this since the beginning and while Nintendo is dropping the Marios and Brawls look at what Sony's dropping basically nothing. There in House studios are trash right now I mean where the next Shadow of the Collusus and wheres the next God of War at? In 09 I bet but what about now? Resistance won't sell like crazy in Jp or NA(like I said history already proven that Gears will take up the holidays) so whats the point most of these FPSs all kinda fail in JP and thats the market they should be targeting I bet LBP would have Multiplatform if MS were more open about there online service and plus what about FFXIII the game that will sell PS3s no matter what the cost of the system is where is that at? I just don't see Sony's plan going great focusing more on First parties while M$ keeps focusing on the 3rd parties means bad news for Sony.

Devin @ Jul 8th 2008 2:26PM

First off, Brawl & Mario Galaxy/Kart are going to be basically all the Wii will offer most hardcore gamers IMO. Secondly, how can you say Sony has trash studios? or that they aren't dropping anything currently?

Most of Sony's exclusives received great reviews.

Resistance is one of the top 3 selling PS3 games. How can R2 not do better?

I heard GoW3 will be coming soon, and maybe by Xmas.

Europe & NA are still humongous markets for gaming and Japan shouldn't be the only market they cater to.

Lastly, Sony has no power over when FFXIII debuts. It will debut when it's ready and people will be buy the system either way (whether now or later). Maybe they'll give a tentative release date for it at E3. Who knows.

Devin @ Jul 8th 2008 2:27PM

FFXIII will debut whenever Square Enix feels it is.

Moe-Ali @ Jul 8th 2008 12:11PM

im starting to like this guy . he's on the right track ... its definitley not phil harrison's fault though so don't blame him.. o yeah the reason he is saying that is becuse multi platform games ported on ps3 tend to be worse how ever games programed on ps3 are ages ahead of exculsives on the 360

saito ps3 @ Jul 8th 2008 1:28PM

sony needs to start investing more in the jrpg market. we only have 2 that i can think of right now, folklore and Valkyrie chronicles. whats taking eternal sonata so long? how about we get star ocean 4, and infinite undiscovery ps3 too? release home already and stop delaying it. i love my ps3, but right now, sony needs to start doing a little bit of what m$ is doing and invest money into 3rd party games, just invest, not bribe lol

Phantom @ Jul 8th 2008 1:48PM

Maybe Sony is taking the right step NOT investing in 3rd party support , I mean , imagine how much MS is shelling out for games. 50 million dollars for extra GTAIV content only on their system , which the PS3 games get for free anyway because of MS timed exclusive trick .

I think Sony should focus more 1st parties . This means investing more into Insomniaca etc . Making a God of War 3 , etc .

but I think one of the best things Sony could do right now would be to get more JRPGs , SRPG's(Final Fantasy Tactics anyone ?) and other types of RPGs .And the best way I think they should do this is

BUY SQUAE-ENIX

How awsome would it be that at E3 SCE revealed that it borrowed money from Sony's many other departments , and bought Square-Enix , that would be awesome . They would probably have to let square finish whatever they're working on , but when they're done they're DS games , they'll only be able to make games for PSP and PS3 . Imagine how many units Sony would sell around the world , and escpeccialy in Japan if they did buy Sqeenix . IMO they could probably take the risk and do it , Sony is a HUGE company .